Wednesday 31 July 2019
Saturday 19 November 2011
Our new housemates (again)
First, a little history:
We have fish. I like fish. They are pretty easy to take care of, cheap to own, and can provide hours of entertainment to people with attention spans like mine. Since getting my tank, it has been populated with the following (in order):
He has then been observed chasing the three remaining fish around the tank, haranguing and harassing them (at least, to my mind), and generally being a big bully. Stern words have been issued, but he appears to not understand, or not care. We have resorted to alternative measures. Allow me to introduce Totoro and Lupé.
Totoro is a Japanese Fighting Fish, although the term is something of a misnomer - he's actually not agressive, unless there is another Fighting Fish in the tank. Lupé is a mosaic corydora, introduced primarily to eat the scraps that fall to the bottom, and keep the tank a bit cleaner.
The hope is that the introduction of these two slightly larger fish will serve to stop Zebra thinking he is king of the tank, and also make it a bit prettier - Totoro is a lovely red, and Lupé's spots complement Zebra's stripes wonderfully.
We have fish. I like fish. They are pretty easy to take care of, cheap to own, and can provide hours of entertainment to people with attention spans like mine. Since getting my tank, it has been populated with the following (in order):
- A black guppy named Black (deceased)
- A yellow guppy named Yellow (deceased)
- Two harlequin rasboras named Thing One and Thing Two
- A zebra danio named Zebra - officially Judy's
- Two tetras - still currently unnamed (one deceased)
- Two crabs named Houdini and Blaine because of their affinity for trying to get out of the tank - officially Josh's (deceased)
He has then been observed chasing the three remaining fish around the tank, haranguing and harassing them (at least, to my mind), and generally being a big bully. Stern words have been issued, but he appears to not understand, or not care. We have resorted to alternative measures. Allow me to introduce Totoro and Lupé.
 |
| Lupé |
 |
| Totoro, with tetra and Thing Two in background |
The hope is that the introduction of these two slightly larger fish will serve to stop Zebra thinking he is king of the tank, and also make it a bit prettier - Totoro is a lovely red, and Lupé's spots complement Zebra's stripes wonderfully.
Saturday 27 August 2011
What I've been up to this week
I thought I might just write about some of my exciting job experiences this week. This is a geeky one.
I love my job. I work for a Christian charity called Adventure Plus as both an activity instructor and the IT Systems Administrator. As I have no subordinates on the IT side of things, this basically makes me the whole of the IT department, which can be any of fun, exciting, liberating, disheartening, horrific, terrifying, lonely, intense, hectic, stressful, rewarding and impressive on any given day. It's usually some combination of the above. The main reason for this is that I can count my IT qualifications without having to start counting. I have none. What I do have is a wealth of experience, an understanding of how technology works, a brain and a willingness to learn. This means that I go into problems with a good idea of what I want to achieve, a reasonable idea of what that will entail, and sometimes a vague idea of exactly how complicated it will be.
This week, I set up a new Primary Domain Controller for our office systems.
In layman's terms, that's the bit that makes logging on to a computer work. It means the computers know who you are, whether your username and password are correct, and what to do with that information (usually allow you some degree of access, set up a couple of shared drives, and apply some default settings). Our current server was originally set up before I started at A+, and runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003. I have no prior knowledge of Windows servers, Active Directory, roaming profiles, Group Policy, or any of a number of other things it pertains to do. This means that when something doesn't work, it takes me an age to figure out why and attempt to fix it. Also, it transpires that we don't have enough licences to allow all our computers to connect at once.
The new server runs Ubuntu 10.04 (Linux) and Samba 4.0, which is currently in heavy development. There is no sign of Windows or Microsoft anywhere on the new server, however I can log in as a Domain Administrator and use exactly the same management tools that I've been using on Windows from any computer that's part of my test network.
Roaming profiles work.
Group policies work.
Login and update scripts work.
Syncing the time works.
I even joined an Ubuntu desktop to the domain to see if I could. I could.
In one week, I have gone from having a computer with nothing on it to a fully working server that is more functional than our current Windows server. The operating system, and all software used so far, are not only free, but open source, and developed by communities of individuals. The running costs, from a software and licence viewpoint, are zero.
In one week, I have learned more about how to make Samba work as a PDC than in over two years attempting to learn the nuances of Microsoft Server 2003.
Now, I'm certainly not saying that there is anything fundamentally wrong with the setup that is in place. What I am trying to point out is that sometimes all the information you have about how to go about something is wrong, and actually there are simpler, better solutions if you just look for them.
Just to finish, I do not mean this to come across as arrogant. I am under no illusions as to my own abilities, and I've worked with Linux, and command line tools before. I had blocked out the next three weeks to get to the point I am now at with the new server. I was expecting to hit massive problems. I owe an awful lot of thanks to the helpful people on the #samba-technical IRC channel, and the people who wrote the HOWTO guide that got me most of the way there. I'm off canoeing down the Thames for a few days next week, and it's great to know that I'll be coming back to a shiny working server, rather than one in tatters.
I love my job. I work for a Christian charity called Adventure Plus as both an activity instructor and the IT Systems Administrator. As I have no subordinates on the IT side of things, this basically makes me the whole of the IT department, which can be any of fun, exciting, liberating, disheartening, horrific, terrifying, lonely, intense, hectic, stressful, rewarding and impressive on any given day. It's usually some combination of the above. The main reason for this is that I can count my IT qualifications without having to start counting. I have none. What I do have is a wealth of experience, an understanding of how technology works, a brain and a willingness to learn. This means that I go into problems with a good idea of what I want to achieve, a reasonable idea of what that will entail, and sometimes a vague idea of exactly how complicated it will be.
This week, I set up a new Primary Domain Controller for our office systems.
In layman's terms, that's the bit that makes logging on to a computer work. It means the computers know who you are, whether your username and password are correct, and what to do with that information (usually allow you some degree of access, set up a couple of shared drives, and apply some default settings). Our current server was originally set up before I started at A+, and runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003. I have no prior knowledge of Windows servers, Active Directory, roaming profiles, Group Policy, or any of a number of other things it pertains to do. This means that when something doesn't work, it takes me an age to figure out why and attempt to fix it. Also, it transpires that we don't have enough licences to allow all our computers to connect at once.
The new server runs Ubuntu 10.04 (Linux) and Samba 4.0, which is currently in heavy development. There is no sign of Windows or Microsoft anywhere on the new server, however I can log in as a Domain Administrator and use exactly the same management tools that I've been using on Windows from any computer that's part of my test network.
Roaming profiles work.
Group policies work.
Login and update scripts work.
Syncing the time works.
I even joined an Ubuntu desktop to the domain to see if I could. I could.
In one week, I have gone from having a computer with nothing on it to a fully working server that is more functional than our current Windows server. The operating system, and all software used so far, are not only free, but open source, and developed by communities of individuals. The running costs, from a software and licence viewpoint, are zero.
In one week, I have learned more about how to make Samba work as a PDC than in over two years attempting to learn the nuances of Microsoft Server 2003.
Now, I'm certainly not saying that there is anything fundamentally wrong with the setup that is in place. What I am trying to point out is that sometimes all the information you have about how to go about something is wrong, and actually there are simpler, better solutions if you just look for them.
Just to finish, I do not mean this to come across as arrogant. I am under no illusions as to my own abilities, and I've worked with Linux, and command line tools before. I had blocked out the next three weeks to get to the point I am now at with the new server. I was expecting to hit massive problems. I owe an awful lot of thanks to the helpful people on the #samba-technical IRC channel, and the people who wrote the HOWTO guide that got me most of the way there. I'm off canoeing down the Thames for a few days next week, and it's great to know that I'll be coming back to a shiny working server, rather than one in tatters.
Wednesday 6 April 2011
By the way...
The company I work for have a sponsored event going on next week.
I have another blog where I'll be writing about it.
There's also a Twitter feed which will have updates.
Also, I've created a clever map that show where we'll be (it'll be tracking my phone down the river).
You could sponsor me if you like.
I have another blog where I'll be writing about it.
There's also a Twitter feed which will have updates.
Also, I've created a clever map that show where we'll be (it'll be tracking my phone down the river).
You could sponsor me if you like.
Thursday 17 March 2011
Microsoft Office 2010
So I've spent most of the day installing Office 2010 on all our work PCs, then getting people to test it, mainly by carrying on with what they were doing previously on OpenOffice 3. The move back to MS Office was a management decision to standardise across the office, originally asking if it was possible to 'standardise to different versions of Microsoft,' leading me to believe that some people either a) aren't familiar with what 'standardise' means, or b) are under the impression that so long as it's from the same company, it's the same product. I'll find a suitable car analogy soon enough, I'm sure.
Anyhow, having sourced Office 2010 Standard edition at a Charity discount rate and played with it for a day or so, I have to say... I don't hate it.
This will come as something as a surprise to most people who know me, and so I think I need to explain myself.
I dislike being told that I should buy expensive things because "they're better" or because "you get what you pay for." I consider myself to be very discerning, fairly intelligent, and capable of making my own informed decisions. To borrow a line from the Matrix, I believe "you have to make up your own damn mind" about many things. My past experiences with Microsoft have given me the view that their software is a) overpriced for what you get, and b) not substantially better than what you can get for free. However, I think somewhere in the last decade they've realised they need to step up their game to compete with open source software. Office 2010 seems responsive, well thought out, flexible, and, dare I say, worth what we paid for it.
But therein lies the one remaining problem: I was buying in bulk, and getting a hefty charity discount. In fact, the suite we've got includes the same software as the Home and Business version, for less than the retail price of the Student version. Is it worth £190? I don't think so. Do I think that, at the price we paid, it was a good investment? Definitely. Read into that what you will.
Anyhow, having sourced Office 2010 Standard edition at a Charity discount rate and played with it for a day or so, I have to say... I don't hate it.
This will come as something as a surprise to most people who know me, and so I think I need to explain myself.
I dislike being told that I should buy expensive things because "they're better" or because "you get what you pay for." I consider myself to be very discerning, fairly intelligent, and capable of making my own informed decisions. To borrow a line from the Matrix, I believe "you have to make up your own damn mind" about many things. My past experiences with Microsoft have given me the view that their software is a) overpriced for what you get, and b) not substantially better than what you can get for free. However, I think somewhere in the last decade they've realised they need to step up their game to compete with open source software. Office 2010 seems responsive, well thought out, flexible, and, dare I say, worth what we paid for it.
But therein lies the one remaining problem: I was buying in bulk, and getting a hefty charity discount. In fact, the suite we've got includes the same software as the Home and Business version, for less than the retail price of the Student version. Is it worth £190? I don't think so. Do I think that, at the price we paid, it was a good investment? Definitely. Read into that what you will.
Tuesday 1 February 2011
The evidence
Well, the Christmas cake is eaten, the snow has melted, the kids are back at school, and I've just cut together all the footage from my secret filming shenanigans. Behold!
A few questions remain:- The Wise Men reside in the loft. How did they open the loft hatch? They must be wise indeed!
- How is it they always know where the manger is? A small internal star? Incredibly precise maps? Sat-nav?
- Where did the Wise Men learn how to operate heavy (Lego) machinery?
- Why did the living room camera fail to record? Sabotage???
- What will they get up to next year?
- What should I do with this evidence now? They have committed no crime, and to try to stop them would seem (at best) unsportsmanlike.
Sunday 26 December 2010
Concern mounts
As Christmas nears, and we plan to go touring the country visiting relatives and the like, I have some concerns regarding certain 'visitors' to the house around this time of year. I refer, of course, to our Three Wise Men from our Nativity set. These fellows, when left to their own devices, can get up to all sorts of mischief. They will use any means necessary to reach the rest of the crew. Last year I found them fashioning a rudimentary belay system to better manage the stairs - as you can imagine, with all the new housemates, I'm a little concerned as to what they'll get up to!
To that end, I'm planning on rigging the house with cameras to catch these 'wise' men red-handed, and hold a formal court proceeding if any property damage should occur. I'll post what I find on here early in the new year.
To that end, I'm planning on rigging the house with cameras to catch these 'wise' men red-handed, and hold a formal court proceeding if any property damage should occur. I'll post what I find on here early in the new year.
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