Posts by The Original Steve 667 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009
Don't understand the fuss. 920 already does 4G very nicely thank you (which the article implies it doesn't). Only thing that's different is xeon flash rather than LED which I wish I had to be honest - and apparently it's slightly slimmer..... Not sure if that's engineering refinement or just a smaller battery.
Still both handsets are really rather nice.
Couldn't agree more. After posting my drivers licence for a photo update as required by the DVLA I found myself - at aged 28 - that I was unable to purchase a 6-pack of beer to take to a BBQ.
I was wearing a suit, was paying with credit card and had my car keys in hand.
Apparently I needed a passport or no alcohol. Common sense has just left the building....
'Good for delivering a presentation, but other than Office on surface RT, I've not seen any office software that floats my boat. Trouble is, the lack of everything else makes Surface RT a bit of a one trick pony.'
Quite.
Although doesn't surface rt use the ARM compiled edition of Office 2013?
If so can't you use any Windows 8 x86 tablet and buy Office with it?
Couldn't agree more, mirrors my sentiments entirely.
As usual with Microsoft the marketing has been poor. Can't say the Lumia's are amazing, but they are very capable, solid and affordable handset.
WP is getting the few core apps, mainly games, that the other two giants have, and I'd love more customizable autocorrect but otherwise it's a pretty solid platform.
True, I'm 400m from an exchange that's unlikely to have FFTC anytime soon (again, bumpkin land) and my connection is superb. Steady 4Mbs on private torrent sites, no caps, good reliability and very reasonably priced.
Their 'Customer Service' is closer to a threat than a department name but that aside; technically it's awesome for £30 a month including line rental, uncapped 22Mbs ADSL2+, and some unlimited landline call thing. (I don't even have a phone plugged in). Those YouView things are free now too if Freeview is your thing.
Obviously their non-LLU stuff is standard residential BT Wholesale with shite contention on the rented backhaul. Thought of that with the the woeful call centres is utterly depressing.
Would never had believed it myself until I saw the torrent speeds my tech savvy uncle showed off one day... Switched from the then excellent but-has-no-LLU-presence Eclipse with a business product and amazing customer service to the infamous TalkTalk.
Cheaper, and whilst the best BT Wholesale reseller going, it's also faster. Incredible - but true!
Always used Oracle Forms and Reports as the backend of our ERP is 10g. Used JInitiator until 4 years ago as it never ran on Vista so naturally moved to full JRE and it's nothing short of bollocks.
Deploying SCCM 2012 in the next week or so and spent today putting the latest version in the application catalogue rather than deploy as part of the image. Anything to reduce our Java footprint. We're in the throws of moving to .Net for the client and middle layers and it can't come soon enough.
Of course our only Oracle DBA/Java dev left a year ago so moving from 6 u26 to 7 u14 will be fun...
Platform trolling aside, is it any wonder based on their portfolio of products based on Windows Phone compared to say Nokia or even HTC.
Not saying the platform is amazing, or that what Samsung is saying is untrue - but if I was buying a WP device (and I have done) then Samsung would be the last of the vendors to get a look in. No value added.
Disagree with the AC, and agree with most of your post but
"Windows however sacrifices security and needs to be heavily locked down, often requiring third party software at extra cost"
Microsoft changed to a everything off by default stance' a few years ago. In 2012 you can even disable the GUI if/when you don't need it, and back on for occasional admin that's a shit in the CLI.
As Linux improves in accessibility and compatibility MS improves on security it seems. Best of both worlds on both platforms if you ask me.
If you need 3rd party tools to lock down Windows you don't - you need to fire your admin.
Found HP ProCurve switches to be very good value for money. The real ones, not the 3Com ones. The 29xx and 32xx are particularly good and have lifetime NBD warranty.
Used a pair of Dell 6648's a few years ago and suffered firmware issue, lost configs and piss poor support. Don't think they even supported Vlan priority's.
Use a 2900 as a basic L3 1gig router and have a 2910 or 2900 as top of rack with CX4 or fibre between them form a poor mans 10gig ring topology.
Anyone know about the speed of RSTP when using iSCSI and VMWare?
So really, define a standard interface that EMIS supports off the bat, create a central broker / proxy and all queries hit this proxy, which then forwards / redirects to the appropriate GP's surgery EMIS DB.
Only central data is name, NHS no, postcode and location of the actual DB that houses the patients records. Maybe DOB too.
Auditing DB with every access attempt (who, where, when and what) - no bulk viewing and all read only. Single record can be viewed at a time, no browsing - access by name, postcode and DOB OR NHS no plus one other piece of data as above.
Cheap and easy. Get away with a couple of tables. DB replication, a load balancer and slap it into a datacentre with diverse network and power.
What's that...? About £25k, £3k a year overhead / support / hosting / connectivity etc. Done.
Oh, 5k consultancy fee for me too.
Obviously could happily sync the data from EMIS instead, or just have it all centralized but why reinvent the wheel?
Keeps the data where it is, the same people who can already get it have access, just a central way to get it.
...is worth a lot at entry level.
Took someone on who I felt was a better fit on the team in terms of personality, but other than tinkering at home he'd only ever worked as a shelf stacker. (He's 20 mind!)
I asked a few questions about current tech to gague his interest in it. If candidates know what a SAN is (just what it stands for, or what it's used for. Even "Storage" is a valid answer) then it suggest they at least try to keep up on development with enterprise tech. Someone who WANTS to learn is beter than someone who doesn't in my opinion.
A couple of years on a helldesk, hinting that you want to learn, do a self-taught A+ and Network+ and go in with the attitude that you're not experienced, but you're determined, want to learn and LOVE troubleshooting and customer service. That's what most people, IMHO would look for when getting a traniee / PFY in. If it's an entry level position a clean slate and desire to learn is the best I could ask for. The paperwork is just a useful deciding tool if stuck between a couple of candidates.
- PLAY! OSS is great, but I most companies don't want trainee staff around Linux boxes, and I'd wager there's less in use out in corporate world. Enjoy playing with every platform, but become a god on desktop Windows.
- A+ / Network+ are good, entry level bits of paper. But they show you know fundementals - nothing more. Self-study is cheap and will boost your credentials
- ESXi and Hyper-V are good freebie places to look at. Create a VM host and use the host to create test VM's for your learning machines!
- MS do free online virtual machines with training guides. They're actuall quite good. Imagine others provide something similar too.
- Enterprise versions of most software can be obtained via trial licences / eval copies from most big vendors.
- If you have a pro or ent version of Windows fire up gpedit.msc and play. I'd suggest in a VM if possible. Same with Windows firewall (advanced though).
- Keep ontop of industry news. El Reg, Neowin, The Inq and BBC Tech News are some of my favourites.
- Everyone needs platforms, web servers, databases, mail servers and directory services. Platforms are the starting point. Unless you want to be a DBA I suggest knowing different vendors, editions and maybe a play installing, but otherwise don't go in to deep. DBA is a job in itself and sits in IS rather than Infrastructure.
Most of all - enjoy it. Being enthuastic is your best bet. WIthout qualifications or experience behind you, you're going to need to sell yourself on your personality. I'd suggest going in as willing to learn and be shaped as possible, whilst showing your love for IT, customer service and desire to get into enterprise IT.
Good luck!
I didn't hear of the development embargo placed on developers when creating applications for Windows Phone. Care to share your source?
Or are you making an assumption that developers just won't target WP7.x as it's now legacy? Because I think your statement is a little untruthful otherwise.
And yes, apps that you have on WP7.x can be moved to WP8 via the Marketplace as long as you use the same Microsoft Account on both phones. (Assuming the application exists / works on both platforms of course)
Yet Tesco next door to Game sell the same items for £10 less each. Appreciate the independent shops probably pay more for the goods in the first place but I would have thought Game would be well placed against a supermarket. I suspect Tesco's cost per employee is more (slightly better pay, better prospects for pay increases) than Game too.
Oh - and if it's due to retail coats (although amount of rent aside I don't see how it's any different to a UK based online merchant. Staff, building, admin etc.) then why are the games just as expensive on their website as they are in store?
"I'd love to just slap in a couple of FC SAN's and be done with it. Uses our existing, Enterprise-Grade FC infrastructure. However for the budget I've got there's just no chance. For £50k I can add in a redundant link for our Ethernet topology, run RSTP and create a new VLAN with the highest priority."
That 50k includes the 2 SAN nodes, discs, support and the above topology changes. (Mainly civils in getting new fibre runs in place.)
@AC
"I see a lot of people testing VMs with ISCSI. Why? (and I'm honestly wondering)"
Honestly - cost.
I work for a medium sized business and the last SAN install I did for our head office where we have around 80 VM's / 4 large hosts was an EMC Clarrion. All fibre channel, dedicated network, full mesh topology, no single point of failure (host, HBA, switches, cables, storage processors etc.). Beautiful.
That was 4 years ago. Our EMC is now dropping IO's like the government drops elections promises and we're pretty much out of capacity.
2 weeks ago I was told we have a budget of 40k for a SAN. Actually two SAN's if I want to keep the same level of redundancy / replication I have between the two server rooms. Tried getting at least 10Tb usable storage, on 15k RPM discs that's certified for VMWare, has 3 years mission critical support, replication, dedupe and works on fibre channel. For under 40k.... Impossible I tell you.
So I'm left with no choice. It's cheaper to bulk up the Ethernet core with some more redundancy, slap in another redundant path and buy a HP P4500 (two of in a cluster - virtual IP). This scares the crap out of me as our Ethernet does NOT have redundant paths, nor redundant switching. In fact a single cable cut or a single switch failure at top of rack level over our 6 racks in the two rooms would take the whole Ethernet core down. (I had 8k for 10 switches.... FFS!). Can whack in a replacement switch (have a couple kicking around) or replace a knackered uplink / fibre in a few minutes. That's okay for voice and data traffic as it's a few minutes downtime where servers and clients can't talk.
However if that happened with iSCSI then I presume my VM's would all shit themselves as they can't access their VMDK's anymore. BSOD's all around I'd presume...
I'd love to just slap in a couple of FC SAN's and be done with it. Uses our existing, Enterprise-Grade FC infrastructure. However for the budget I've got there's just no chance. For £50k I can add in a redundant link for our Ethernet topology, run RSTP and create a new VLAN with the highest priority.
Not what I would want, but best I can do with the resources given.
Couldn't agree more. Looking at replacing a lot of our core shortly as we're ditching our trusty FC fabic for a converged iSCSI ethernet network - and quite honestly it's a nightmare. Mainly a ProCurve and Juniper shop (although use Cisco 6500 too) but trying to get above 1Gig for anything other than the backbone is far too costly. I hate planning a new topology that's designed to last a good 5 years + and on day one going to have to use LACP / NIC teaming just to get the baseline performance required!
1-Gig would be great outside of inter-switch backbone links but just far to expensive still.
I manage 'all those updates' by using an OS that was released in the last decade.
Win 7 or Win 8 are fine for patching, no worse or better than Ubuntu or OSX. Try a more modern version.
And the Dell XPS range has similar aesthetics, specs and a price that's a nudge less too. Imagine HP do something similar too.
Actually I was worried when the NHS sent me a DVD of my right knee MRI scan as they refered to it as a disc of images.... being sent in the post? Surely they should be password protected as it contains my medical details...?
I got the DVD 2 working days after I posted the cheque to the PACS people, and on that morning they called me on the number on file to advise of the password. Put in the DVD, ran the app on the root of the disc and entered in the password provided. Voila - images, slices, metadata, consultant reports etc. all in this non-standard app. If I want to share the contents I can press export and dump into PDF, JPG, and even a MHTML flat file.
For 95% of computer users, if they have the same experience as me then they will be very, very satisfied. The default action of the NHS when you ask for a copy of data is to:
Process the request within 2 working days
Provide the data required AND associated reports (if you asked or not!)
Encrypt said data
Post media to details on the request form
Contact patient the following day in the morning with the password
95% of people can put in the disc, run the app and go
Should the patient want a standard / open output they can if they wish
And this is bad? Honestly, some people are never satisfied.... Put on a trial VM of Win7 on your linux box and spit your pics out in a nice JPEG (without the password, or medical metadata). Or ask the nice people at PACS if they can export the pics to you - although I'd imagine they'll make you sign a disclaimer acknowleding the risks of unencrypted data etc....
Nothing even slightly outstanding in terms of innovation, creativity or being "revolutionary". Compared to how good the Samsung Galaxy range are, the dated feel of iOS, WinPho8's different UI and the features Nokia have stated for the new Lumia's it could be turning point in making the phone market much more interesting. Customers won't be flocking too it as there's nothing luring them in, plus if you have any previous accessories now you have to pay for / carry an adaptor.
Personally I think the new MS UI on the XBox, Win8 and WinPhone works well for touch. Throw in the wireless charging, camera and screen (not that I care, but a bigger PPI than Apple's "retina" screens) I'm tempted to go for a Nokia Lumia.
Galaxy S III is a bit sexy too though...!
Stop talking shit.
"You take pictures, they are uploaded to Windows Live Skydrive."
My WP handset calls it 'SkyDrive'.
"Want to identify music? Use the Bing Music Search - no Shazaam here"
Yup, I press the magnifying glass icon and then the music note icon. I have never seen any branding called 'Bing Music Search'.
Oh - but just in case the built-in music search fails I DO have the Shazaam app installed too. You know, because I can.
"Want to play some music? Fire up the Zune player."
Not on my WP handset I don't. I touch 'Music & Videos'.
"Want to use an IM? Fire up Windows Live Messenger."
Nah, I don't have anyone on WLM. Does anyone even use that anymore? I use Facebook IM - which is integrated into the messaging application natively, along with Twitter, LinkedIn etc. Or you can not use any of them.
"Personally, I've not tried a WP."
No shit?
"But then I don't need to."
See above
"I've already made my choices about where I'm going to keep my contacts, my photos, my music, my files,..."
I'm pleased for you. My previous handset was a HTC Desire running stock ROM as well as a few custom ones such as Modoco. As such a lot of my contacts are on Facebook and GMail. Thankfully Windows Phone will connect to these address books and copy to the local device and continue to sync from the "cloud" service. The same as Android, and I presume iOS do. Microsoft don't have anything that Google and Facebook don't already have in terms of data. My files aren't kept on Skydrive as I don't want them too. Neither to my photo's. My contacts are kept in GMail including new contacts I create on the phone. Calendar is GMail too.*
*Actually my shit is stored on SkyDrive, although I still have most contacts on Google and Facebook still. But that's because I have made my choice. My choice is that Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple are all fuckers but the convenience of essentially having a backup copy of my data in case I lose or break my phone is worth the trade off. But that's MY choice. Your choice of making statements about a product you clearly know nothing about however is a poor one.
If you haven't managed to work out that Windows 7 really is faster in doing your usual day-to-day stuff compared to XP then I'm happy to let you continue to struggle. Pressing a single key and typing the first couple of letters of the application, control panel applet or even document is a damn sight quicker than doing it in XP by browsing alone. Honestly, move on and get over it.
And your other points really just point out that you are not in the market for a tablet machine. Fair enough, but hardly makes WIndows 8 crap before it's even released though does it.
As a business with more than 5 PC's I'd assume you buy via a volume licence agreement. In which case you would use Windows 7 rather than Windows 8. Lookup downgrade rights.
Most OEM's will also provide downgrade rights if you order a Windows licence via a PC that's tied to the hardware at no extra cost other than the media. (E.g. Dell and HP do this).
That's how.
Sorry but my view is quite simple:
The business comes to IT with a problem. IT replies with a solution and a cost associated with it.
Anything else is down the the IT Department's internal way of dealing with things. IT is a supplier of services to the business. The business however should NOT be telling IT how to run the department, nor should they be telling IT what systems or equipment is required. Just the problem is enough, we'll come up with the solution.
Anything else is details and piss-poor department-level management.
Sorry Ken but "Apart from Office 2003, which was EOL-ed in 2007" is in fact Bullshit:
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2488
Office 2003 mainstream support ended 2009. Extended support ends in 2014.
I think 6 years support and updates to a product is fair when it's included in the price.
Regarding the rest... please provide KB article numbers. I'd be very interested to read them.
Seems a little harsh there.
If you want to "TEST" "SOFTWARE PRODUCTS" can I recommend Microsoft's Developer Network where you'll get the Home editions as well.
TechNet is for IT Professionals. E.g people that work in IT Departments... Therefore I need Infrastructure products and platforms used in Enterprises as well as technical toolkits.
MSDN is for Developers. E.G people that write and test code against Microsoft products. Therefore they require access to all of Microsoft's platforms and developments tools.
Partner Action Pack is for Organisations that work with Microsoft products or resell them. They therefore need anything they might sell as well as tools aim at promotion and marketing.
Seems fair enough to me.
Been laid up after knee problems the last month and will be housebound for the next 2 months at least to.
As such im doing a bond marathon after getting the collection in blu-ray. The difference between bond films before Craige is so stark its like QoS and Casino Royale and completely different from the rest.
Ditch Craige and give me back guns, women, gadgets and cheese please.
As artwork is often done in Adobe software. When emailed to my users they need to be 100% positive that it's perfect. Not a shade different, not a jaggered edge, not a millimeter different that the original.
As good as other 3rd party software is, and as much as I truly hate Adobe and their flakey, swiss cheese impersonating software - we are a service provider to the business, not the people that can outlaw software just because we think it's a bit shit.
For video and images I've used Bing for the last 12 / 18 months or so - it's actually rather good.
Still use a mix of Google and Bing for normal web searches. I find Google is better at technical searches (e.g. work related / geek stuff), where I find Bing a better general search engine.
Least we still have a choice!
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