Jason Slater
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Loading ...Where did I put that driver disc?
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I recently talked about problems with Backing Up (and Restoring) XP Drivers and have been trying to find a reliable method for hardware driver management. With so many different configurations in the field and including those in the server room - managing a rebuild is a much more complex task than it really should be. Unless you are lucky enough to purchase all your machines and software at the same time and perform regular technology updates and refreshes then chances are you, like us, have lots of different driver requirements. Much of the time this isn’t a problem. After all, while the machine is running adequately we don’t need to worry about it right? Only when a server fails do we often realise that we don’t have driver ‘X’ at hand and the machine won’t operate properly without it.
Virtual Server technology is started to provide some relief to this problem by layering the virtual drivers away from the physical drivers but where does the responsibility for driver management lie? It would be great to click a button and backup all the existing drivers and be able to utilise them during a rebuild but for this to work it needs the hardware vendors and the operating systems people to work together to implement an industry wide solution.
In the mean time I will continue my search but I wonder - how do you manage your drivers?
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Loading ...Wordpress becoming a CMS platform
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I’ve been running Wordpress 2.5 RC1 for around a week and have posted my Wordpress 2.5 RC1 - First Impressions on this long anticipated upgrade. There are a number of CMS platforms out there but Wordpress is quickly transforming into an extremely useful and adaptable platform. We have also been looking at using it internally within our organisation due to its ease of configuration and use. Sharepoint has always been the direction we have been heading in as I’ve written about several times but Wordpress is definitely growing on me! Two of my favourite things about the platform are the ease in which content can be published and the varied array of plug-ins which extend the platform into a number of useful directions.
Which CMS do you use and what do you like about it?
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Loading ...Virtual Servers get rebooted twice
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For some time now I’ve been working on a server consolidation project in our environment (Virtualisation Update … Web Server). This has been using virtualisation technology which seems to be in vogue at the moment. So, instead of a number of tower based servers we now have just a few HP DL380 64-bit servers running a virtual images which on the whole is working great. Rebooting machines is much quicker, allocating resources is easier, we are getting better value out of our machines and backing up virtual images gives us a sense of security that we could only dream of five years ago. It is also becoming easier to get all the machine images onto the same software release, see Upgrading Windows 2003 Server SP2 to R2.
One problem we have discovered however, especially being a 24 hour operation, is that when certain patches and updates have been installed on a host server it still needs rebooting which now takes down half a dozen servers at a time instead of just the one. The added trouble is that the virtual images receive updates too so now they often get rebooted twice, once for their own update and once for the host update. I imagine a good software and patch update methodology is the answer to this dilemma but it’s still surprising that with all this technology at hand - that a machine still needs to be switched off and on again in order to process an update.
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Loading ...When spam is not spam
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We used to employ a system of automatically rejecting blacklisted incoming email senders. To do this we relied on services such as xBL. The problem we found was that from time to time genuine companies would, for one reason or another, find themselves on these blacklist sites and, even worse, they were not always aware of it. We found this out the hard way because we didn’t process (or deliver) several orders that were contained upon these incoming emails (Managing Incoming Email)- a hard lesson by any standard.
Of course in the ‘old days’ customer orders used to come in physically on paper but these days many are coming in solely via e-mail. I used to advise against this delivery mechanism for something as important as orders using the point that e-mail is not a guaranteed (or reliable) delivery mechanism. As time progressed though, customer requirements demanded that we accept these communications and it’s hard to argue against it when customer orders are at stake. One thing I have found more of recently is that genuine customer orders on incoming e-mail are starting to show up as potential spam. Again, we typically used to reject spam senders but it now looks as if we have to manually trawl through these - and as we get hit with thousands of these e-mails per day the task is rapidly becoming quite time consuming (Guess What … SPAM is on the increase).
We did try white listing certain supplier domains in the early days and configure our systems not to stop these communications in the hope that we might get a good stab at dealing with these problems but it didn’t take long for interesting post-cards, executables and screen savers to start getting picked up on other internal systems. Informing customers that we really don’t appreciate these things being sent to our staff is not a great way of maintaining a supplier/customer relationship and so we are regularly looking for other ways of dealing with these problems. It still surprises me that some large corporations seemingly allow their staff to have these sort of things on their computers and even more that they allow their staff to send them to trading partners using e-mail.
It seems we want to have the cake AND eat it. We want protection against spam but we also don’t want to miss genuine e-mails that may get flagged as spam. We don’t want e-mails from blacklisted senders but we don’t want to reject genuine orders either. We get ten times more spam than we did last year and no doubt next year the current figures will look like small fry in comparison.
What is the best way of dealing with incoming spam and blacklisted senders whilst also ensuring that valuable trading partner information doesn’t get rejected at the gateway?
Related Post: Sex, Drugs and the Spam Patrol
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Loading ...Which remote support solution to choose?
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The time is rapidly looming for us to decide which remote control support software (or service) to use for the year ahead. Since remote control software came of age, supporting remote users has become much easier in our organisation. What used to be a two hour conversation on how to get an IP address has since become a two minute remote control session - the users are happy and the support team are happy. Our key requirement has always been a simple, fast remote desktop control service so we can quickly connect to an end user and take control when needed to sort out a particular problem.
In the early days when remote support initially became a real time consuming problem we started out with Logmein RemotelyAnywhere which required a small install on the users computers and provided quick and easy access for remote control support. This move is still pretty much one of the biggest improvements we have made in our support operation. We later moved to Logmein Rescue (see my post Remote Access Support) as we needed to support users that may not have the client software installed. This typically required a visit to a special web site for the end user to type in a pin code - it generally worked well and gave us a more flexible solution. Last year we moved to NTR Support which allowed us to place a support button directly onto our web site (which included a chat session) - I previously wrote about this in Remote User Support with NTRsupport which meant that users were able to request remote support directly from our web site which felt more familiar (although behind the scenes they were redirected to a hosted service). The only problem we have experienced with this service is caused not by NTRSupport but by Internet Explorer trying to be clever by blocking ActiveX and insisting users click on the yellow bar (which rarely appears on the users locked down desktops). There is an installable remote client option but we really wanted to get away from that dependency.
So, time moves on and I am looking into the options available and would really appreciate your thoughts and experiences using remote support software and services. I wouldn’t rule out free software - Jamie at Terinea posted an article “Free Remote Support Software” which talks about Cross Loop which (although requiring a user download) seems to offer a simple and friendly user experience.
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Loading ...Technology times they are a changing…
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2008 is becoming an interesting time in the field of technology and I’m starting to get swamped (in a good way) with whitepapers, case studies and beta programs. It seems that at every turn there are announcements and launches of new systems, beta tests and new technologies. From the emails I am receiving and news sites I am reading it would seem that Microsoft are leading the way with an almost weekly announcement of something or another.
There was SP1 for Vista (I’ve still held off putting Vista on my laptop even though I have Ultimate sitting in my drawer!), then an announcement of Service Pack 3 for XP, news of Office Live Workspace and Office Live Small Business. Windows Server 2008 is out of wraps with its eight different versions (which caused Monk and Norris some confusion) and Internet Explorer 8 is out on Beta. Silverlight has had a big upgrade and it may even be that Apple might allow an Exchange push client on their shiny iPhone as Apple iPhone and Microsoft Exchange have a cuddle. Now even Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 is out on release!
It is getting to that time when, as technology professionals, we need to take a deep breath then decide where to start !
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Loading ...Hey, you are a bad employee because YOU don’t like change!
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I believe it is a common misconception that people don’t like change. I think that what people generally object to is change being blindly foisted upon them. If I get to work and I’m told “Hey this has changed and you now do this” I’m less likely to embrace the change as I would if I got to work and someone said “Hey, you know that change we’ve been working on - let’s kick it in today”. I don’t mean involving people in a purely superficial way either but really engaging people (and I’m not talking about team building weekends either!). If you give a new user a computer, what is the first thing they are likely to do? You got it, change something. Be it the wallpaper, the icons, the screen saver time out and hopefully their password. We all like to do this because it makes us feel more comfortable and in control. There may be technical reasons for not doing this (allowing users to set screen savers on thin clients) but on the whole giving a sense of control adopts a positive attitude to change.
We are changing all the time, everything around us is experiencing constant change. However, if you decide to blindly change something without involving people (even those on the periphery of the perceived change) you can bet that trouble will ensue shortly after. Of course communication is the answer but it needs to be handled sensitively. Talk to people, keep people in the loop even if they are not directly involved and if something is confidential then keep it that way. When we are at work we want to be part of something, to feel that our voice counts for something and that we are making a difference, even if we’re not seemingly directly involved. I’m not talking about going over the top either and blasting people with memo’s - just talk to people like their opinion matters.
What do you think?
A similar discussion can be found on my other Blog at Creative design by committee is OK - but who wants OK?
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Loading ...Are IT the new moral guardians?
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“Hey you – want a copy of the latest blockbuster or a full copy of that latest software package? Keep it under your hat - nudge nudge - but there is someone who knows someone who can sort you out if you know what I mean”. Grr, I don’t know about you but this sort of thing just grates on me.
More and more these days I have been noticing an uneasy hushed silence as I enter a room. I believe this is because I seem to be the only one endlessly reminding people that copying (or buying copied versions of) software, games and movies is not legal. I’ve lost count of how many times I have had to remind people that downloading or ripping music that you haven’t payed for and don’t own is not legal (unless it has been offered free!). Of course I can’t be sure that anyone is actually doing anything wrong because I haven’t seen it with my own eyes but drop into a conversation that you believe that copying DVD’s is wrong and it seems that conversation runs dry pretty quickly. I used to enjoy car boot sales but stopped as they seemed to be overrun by dodgy DVD dealers. What reply do I always get - “Those mega-corporations have loads of money already and we aren’t doing any harm”. Really?
Two unusual things have been added to the list recently - the other day I had to ask if a video clip being played in a Power Point presentation was licensed for public viewing and then I had to remind someone that copying pages from books using a scanner needs a license. I was even harping on about Second Life (Is Second Life just a den of iniquity?)at the back end of last year as I noticed how simple it was to get online and be dumped in the middle of mature content.
Last week Microsoft and their Ultimate Steal offer became a talking point as a number of people I know are part time or distance students. There even seems to be some confusion over Student versions of software as it would appear that even small children (five and under) that go to Nursery can apparently get full bundles of software for a fraction of the price of the retail package. What a three year old child will do with Microsoft Access is beyond me but I imagine that Mommy and Daddy or Granny and Grandpa might find it useful (I just hope the child understands when they grow up!). Ok, software licensing is a nightmare at the best of times so I guess it can be understandable if someone misinterprets the license agreement from time to time.
The worrying trend is that I seem to be becoming a minority. I didn’t set out to be the one waving the moral flag but as many of these activities are being ‘enabled’ through technology I am left wondering if IT have actually become the new moral guardians.
- Which mobile email solution to choose?
11 comments
- Legacy is alive and well
- Why we love our digital photo frame
- Which remote support solution to choose?
- Am I the only person in the world who likes Mondays?
- Keeping the network in season with Spiceworks 2
- Blobs of plastic
- Technology times they are a changing...
- When spam is not spam
- Virtual Servers get rebooted twice
- Which mobile email solution to choose? (100%)
- Legacy is alive and well (100%)
- Why we love our digital photo frame (100%)
- Technology Predictions for 2008 (100%)
- Power to the people? To the computers would be nice! (100%)
- Am I the only person in the world who likes Mondays? (100%)
- Seeing green (100%)
- Lessons in making a multi-lingual website (100%)
- Sex, Drugs and the Spam Patrol (100%)
- Keeping the network in season with Spiceworks 2 (76%)