Writing ... or Just Practicing?

I guess there are at least two people out there who may be interested in hearing about my latest upgrade experiences. One of them I know is just about to experience hyper-ventilation. Perhaps if I sprinkle it with some useful tips and pointers I can make it at least partly worth reading. And maybe mix in some wry comments and general grumbles about the life and times of a reluctant network-basher (that's a bit like a metal-basher, but with a smaller hammer). Read More...

Microsoft takes security seriously. I take security seriously. I don't have simple one-lever locks on my doors that you can open with a hairgrip, and I wouldn't use the name of my cat as my system administrator password. Well, maybe I would if my cat was called "g&e7532%dH$7", but imagine the fun I'd have calling it in for its supper as nights if it was. Besides, I've got two cats, so it would only get confusing. That's why I wanted to call them "Bev" and "Kev" (but I was over-ruled by my wife). Read More...

So they had an election ages ago in the US, but I still keep seeing that nice Mr. Bush on TV and in the newspapers. It seems like the even nicer Mr. Obama doesn't actually get the keys to the Oval Office until this year. I suppose that kind of makes sense. I mean, if you were employing a new airline pilot, you probably wouldn't want to give him or her the keys to a 747 until they'd had a few goes at landing one on a simulator, and proved that that they know which door to go in through when it comes time to do it for real. Especially if they haven't actually flown a plane before. Read More...

I'm not much into wearing daft T-shirts, or T-shirts with logos that proclaim my technical proclivities (such as being a Windows user, or knowing how to configure a DNS server), though one of my favorites is a T-shirt with a big picture of an organ donor card. It carries the slogan "DONER CARD" with the tagline "I want somebody to eat my kebab when I die". However, one of my other daft T-shirt logos came to mind the other day as my wife was trying to adjust from the relative warmth of a week away in Madeira to the distinct chill of an English December. Read More...