Well there are more than a few barriers, & this being the IT world, there are more than a few sources. But I think that the damned weather must be up there with the top few. Cold, wet, seeping, weeping rain puts a damper (!!) on any job, especially if it's outside, or underground, i.e. a data cable in a conduit, connecting to a Wi-Fi access point. And even worse if it's governed by the Bank of No-Cash which has provided free gash kit to do a pros job.
My only saviour is that I am not the vendor / hired hand, just the monkey offering advice, which will probably fall on deaf ears. Reboot kit, check cable, and curse the demons who lurk outside striking distance, but do it quietly in case they hear you.
Monday, 27 May 2019
Monday, 20 May 2019
Technological & Sociological progress in a Geek community.
Cyclical, thats the word, we are locked in the loop and little realise that we are.......
Let me provide you with a geek example:
TECHNOLOGICAL: the development of personal computers as opposed to big scale industrial / administrative / production computers has been around 40 yrs until this day. Starting off as the 3-box setup of screen, cpu, and keyboard we pretty much stayed like that until the laptop came along, which was basically still the same 3-box format but interconnected as a single mobile unit.
Then came THE TABLET..... Which REALLY changed the landscape. Small form factor, reasonably fast processing, cloud storage options, and cloud-based online applications made the tablet an extremely useful & convenient device. If you had a decent affordable platform....... Such as the Apple iPad.
BUT that wasnt AFFORDABLE !! No Sir ! they were and still are "a hells price" i.e. Not cheap. We then had other vendors such as Google, & Amazon who do not use the Windows or IOS platforms. They use Android or a Linux derivative, with their own App Libraries to provide software and utilities which other vendors want you to pay for. And very well it works indeed.
So get a cheap Google/Android or Amazon Fire tablet and we are ready to become "Road Warriors", mobile, always connected, responsive, and a whole hash of other superlatives. No big fast zippy PC is required, you, as the IT person, have been freed!! You can do what you want and when you want and where you want !! I'm actually typing this content on am Amazon Fire 10" HD tablet, using an Apple Bluetooth keyboard..... Hows that for hybrid !!
SOCIOLOGICAL: Given that we can now do all the "stuff" using low-cost hardware, how has this "convenience" changed the social landscape....? I mean the REAL social landscape, not Facebook, SnapChat or Instagram. The stuff you do that earns you shekels, moolah, spondoolix. You have freedom, but maybe not so much there, hoss..... Your employer may take the opportunity to monitor where you are, what you are doing, may assume that you are available to work, may get you to do some online paperwork etc, maybe fill in a few work tickets etc Other industries call it working. You are a PRISONER, and of your own making, so stop the bitching........
THE SOLUTION: What you HAVE to do is to limit your work to work times only, no late shifts to get the job done. If there aren't enough hours in the day, then do it the next day. Don't get stressed out or bullied into going over the limit. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule - filling in your time sheets and expenses etc., or occassional "research" into technical issues etc.
This may save you time at the day job.... but dont forget that people like YOU get burned out in this industry because they "go the extra mile"....... Being PRO-ACTIVE is fine, but not to the detriment of your health. Use that management organisational skills to schedule the life-work balance positively in your direction. Take holidays, make time for family & friends, schedule regular exercise even if its only a walk with the dog. Being a "workaholic" is as bad as any other "????aholic". Been there, done that, survived.
Let me provide you with a geek example:
TECHNOLOGICAL: the development of personal computers as opposed to big scale industrial / administrative / production computers has been around 40 yrs until this day. Starting off as the 3-box setup of screen, cpu, and keyboard we pretty much stayed like that until the laptop came along, which was basically still the same 3-box format but interconnected as a single mobile unit.
Then came THE TABLET..... Which REALLY changed the landscape. Small form factor, reasonably fast processing, cloud storage options, and cloud-based online applications made the tablet an extremely useful & convenient device. If you had a decent affordable platform....... Such as the Apple iPad.
BUT that wasnt AFFORDABLE !! No Sir ! they were and still are "a hells price" i.e. Not cheap. We then had other vendors such as Google, & Amazon who do not use the Windows or IOS platforms. They use Android or a Linux derivative, with their own App Libraries to provide software and utilities which other vendors want you to pay for. And very well it works indeed.
So get a cheap Google/Android or Amazon Fire tablet and we are ready to become "Road Warriors", mobile, always connected, responsive, and a whole hash of other superlatives. No big fast zippy PC is required, you, as the IT person, have been freed!! You can do what you want and when you want and where you want !! I'm actually typing this content on am Amazon Fire 10" HD tablet, using an Apple Bluetooth keyboard..... Hows that for hybrid !!
SOCIOLOGICAL: Given that we can now do all the "stuff" using low-cost hardware, how has this "convenience" changed the social landscape....? I mean the REAL social landscape, not Facebook, SnapChat or Instagram. The stuff you do that earns you shekels, moolah, spondoolix. You have freedom, but maybe not so much there, hoss..... Your employer may take the opportunity to monitor where you are, what you are doing, may assume that you are available to work, may get you to do some online paperwork etc, maybe fill in a few work tickets etc Other industries call it working. You are a PRISONER, and of your own making, so stop the bitching........
THE SOLUTION: What you HAVE to do is to limit your work to work times only, no late shifts to get the job done. If there aren't enough hours in the day, then do it the next day. Don't get stressed out or bullied into going over the limit. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule - filling in your time sheets and expenses etc., or occassional "research" into technical issues etc.
This may save you time at the day job.... but dont forget that people like YOU get burned out in this industry because they "go the extra mile"....... Being PRO-ACTIVE is fine, but not to the detriment of your health. Use that management organisational skills to schedule the life-work balance positively in your direction. Take holidays, make time for family & friends, schedule regular exercise even if its only a walk with the dog. Being a "workaholic" is as bad as any other "????aholic". Been there, done that, survived.
Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Old Age catches us all....
Well, so its true... no one escapes old age..... it catches us all.
Same goes for technology... let me expand......
I've spent a couple of dollars this last week or so upgrading an old PC I had lying around doing nothing. Its a Packard Bell of indeterminate age, I guess late 2008 perhaps, so its 11 yrs old. Noisy as hell, I presumed that it was the CPU fan, so onto eBay and ordered a 7" fan. No problems, delivered in a couple of day. Fan fitted.... still noisy.... so I reckoned that it must be the PSU, so ordered a replacement ATX PSU, eBay again. Took 5 days to deliver and I'm pretty pissed by the time it took to arrive, and this from one of the U Ks major corporate and educational suppliers.
Installed the PSU - cables a wee bit short, and missing a molex connector, but thats to be expected given the age of the tech at the time. Booted the beast up - still noisy as hell. Regroup and consider - always the best strategy. Now, what else has a fan on it ???? The ATI Video card.....!! Remove said video card and used the on-board video connector, its only an old Intel VGA but it does the job. We now have a silent PC......
So there, even top quality video cards fails after time. My own fault really, I should've checked the on-board connx first of all, and should've had a couple spare PCI video cards to test with. But wait... I DID have this test kit back in the day, and got rid of that kit when I decided to "retire".......
Onward, or not as the situation actually is. Now to reload a decent operating system on the Packard Bell - Linux Mint 19, instead of the MX Linux that was loaded. Further problems... it wont boot up from the USB drive, although I know the pens are working OK. So must be the motherboard boot configuration. I had a look see and modified to boot from USB, but still no joy....... Regroup and rethink.... again...... I've spent money & time on this heap of junk ( Really its a fine PC for someone who isnt a technophile. ) so I think I'll give it the benefit of "another day, when I'm feeling a bit more generous with my time".
No one escapes old age...... Sayonara...... B-)
Same goes for technology... let me expand......
I've spent a couple of dollars this last week or so upgrading an old PC I had lying around doing nothing. Its a Packard Bell of indeterminate age, I guess late 2008 perhaps, so its 11 yrs old. Noisy as hell, I presumed that it was the CPU fan, so onto eBay and ordered a 7" fan. No problems, delivered in a couple of day. Fan fitted.... still noisy.... so I reckoned that it must be the PSU, so ordered a replacement ATX PSU, eBay again. Took 5 days to deliver and I'm pretty pissed by the time it took to arrive, and this from one of the U Ks major corporate and educational suppliers.
Installed the PSU - cables a wee bit short, and missing a molex connector, but thats to be expected given the age of the tech at the time. Booted the beast up - still noisy as hell. Regroup and consider - always the best strategy. Now, what else has a fan on it ???? The ATI Video card.....!! Remove said video card and used the on-board video connector, its only an old Intel VGA but it does the job. We now have a silent PC......
So there, even top quality video cards fails after time. My own fault really, I should've checked the on-board connx first of all, and should've had a couple spare PCI video cards to test with. But wait... I DID have this test kit back in the day, and got rid of that kit when I decided to "retire".......
Onward, or not as the situation actually is. Now to reload a decent operating system on the Packard Bell - Linux Mint 19, instead of the MX Linux that was loaded. Further problems... it wont boot up from the USB drive, although I know the pens are working OK. So must be the motherboard boot configuration. I had a look see and modified to boot from USB, but still no joy....... Regroup and rethink.... again...... I've spent money & time on this heap of junk ( Really its a fine PC for someone who isnt a technophile. ) so I think I'll give it the benefit of "another day, when I'm feeling a bit more generous with my time".
No one escapes old age...... Sayonara...... B-)
Friday, 26 April 2019
The Old 3100c Dell Lives...... Once Again !!
So... still on the hardware rebuild track... yesterdays model was the old Dell Dimension 3100c model..... I've had it for maybe eight or nine years, it was a customer rescue originally, and I've used it to test old hardware on the bench.
This old girl is maybe / at least 12 years old [ production was from 2006 onward until maybe 2010 ], and the Dell Service Tag reveals that it was dispatched to its first owner in September 2006. It has a 32bit CPU, will take at least 4Gb RAM [ i have 3gb on-board in two slots - 2Gb DDRII and 1GB DDRII ], it has SATA connx for HDD drives, and has on-board sound and graphics although it will take a half-height PCIe-X1 video card. Upgrading video card, SSD and RAM costs money tho, and that is NOT what its about.
I plugged in a pair of USB speakers and did an audio / video test YouTube and a streaming news service from Boston, USA last night, and all ran sweetly with no audio loss and hardly any video lag.
The previous owners had plastered the casing with stickers of Disney characters, so I'm guessing that it was passed onto the kids to use. Little did they know.... a wee bit of maintenance and a sweep of eBay to see whats available would produce a "pocket rocket" of a machine. I bought a sheet of leather-look sticky-back plastic and will trim to fit the top/bottom or right/left side panels. Ordered yesterday late afternoon, delivered this morning about 18 hours later !! Excellent Service from Vinyl Warehouse !!
But first, the Linux options. Which distro ? a 32bit obviously, and there are still some being built altho the main distros are all 64bit nowadays. Linux has no encumbrances with "legacy" drivers etc, its all compatible with the hardware you have, due to [ I theenk....] the install process downloads the drivers for the hardware base it recognises, so if its old kit then it uses the old drivers etc.
So I tried it first with Deepin the Chinese distribution [ like almost all things Chinese there is a question of security and spying....] which is graphically very nice, but too slow.... a faster CPU needed methinks. Then onto Elementary 5.0 Juno..... visually exciting and performance was not mediocre, but complex to configure due to the resource repositories updates etc....... not a patch on Linux Mint 19, which IMHO is the leader by far for configuration options.
And finally, the aforementioned Linux Mint 19, this was the 32bit version and even on a Pentium 4 PC with 3Gb RAM it was an acceptable performance, such that it can be used as a spare PC for a young or elderly user, or one who doesn't need the full 10 yards performance wise. A full blown RAM upgrade to 8Gb, and small SSD installed (120Gb perhaps) and "el Cheapo" half-height PCIe video card and this think would smoke. This upgrade would be viable if "El Dell" were to be used as a in-house video screen device, i.e. connected to a large in-house display [ or "El Cheapo" TV with HDMI ] and set to run a video or presentation on loop.
Time changes everything of course, and at this time, mid 2019, we are able to use online and cloud-based software, in fact I am running one of my laptops solely on a LM19 install with almost all software available in the distro or in the Cloud. Chromebooks are common as were Netbooks, and I have recently built a Netbook with a Linux distro and it runs just fine, not so fast in comparison to other modern kit, but at least as fast as when it was new.
I theenk Senor, that this Dell will be a "donation" to some deserving enthusiast perhaps, I really don't think that I should keep it....... but I've said that before......
I plugged in a pair of USB speakers and did an audio / video test YouTube and a streaming news service from Boston, USA last night, and all ran sweetly with no audio loss and hardly any video lag.
The previous owners had plastered the casing with stickers of Disney characters, so I'm guessing that it was passed onto the kids to use. Little did they know.... a wee bit of maintenance and a sweep of eBay to see whats available would produce a "pocket rocket" of a machine. I bought a sheet of leather-look sticky-back plastic and will trim to fit the top/bottom or right/left side panels. Ordered yesterday late afternoon, delivered this morning about 18 hours later !! Excellent Service from Vinyl Warehouse !!
But first, the Linux options. Which distro ? a 32bit obviously, and there are still some being built altho the main distros are all 64bit nowadays. Linux has no encumbrances with "legacy" drivers etc, its all compatible with the hardware you have, due to [ I theenk....] the install process downloads the drivers for the hardware base it recognises, so if its old kit then it uses the old drivers etc.
So I tried it first with Deepin the Chinese distribution [ like almost all things Chinese there is a question of security and spying....] which is graphically very nice, but too slow.... a faster CPU needed methinks. Then onto Elementary 5.0 Juno..... visually exciting and performance was not mediocre, but complex to configure due to the resource repositories updates etc....... not a patch on Linux Mint 19, which IMHO is the leader by far for configuration options.
Time changes everything of course, and at this time, mid 2019, we are able to use online and cloud-based software, in fact I am running one of my laptops solely on a LM19 install with almost all software available in the distro or in the Cloud. Chromebooks are common as were Netbooks, and I have recently built a Netbook with a Linux distro and it runs just fine, not so fast in comparison to other modern kit, but at least as fast as when it was new.
I theenk Senor, that this Dell will be a "donation" to some deserving enthusiast perhaps, I really don't think that I should keep it....... but I've said that before......
Tuesday, 23 April 2019
Back on the road again.....
Well well well..... here we are again.... back on the blog after many years of neglect, seven years in fact, and in that time my life has changed considerably. I worked at the local college and university campus for just over 4 years, as the IT Team Leader, and a few more jobs and roles that wasn't on the job description. Internal office politics tread its path though, and I left at the end of 2016, for an "early retirement" spell.
Last month, two days before my 65th birthday, I was offered a job as a "Deskside Engineer" and so I have decided to take up the offer. I've been working in IT for nearly 35 years, I've done a load of stuff, consequently I have acquired ability and accumulated experience.
So I am just updating / refreshing the stuff I have forgot..... YouTube is fantastic, an online " here's what they dont teach you " school.
This week I've been exploring the latest version of Linux Mint 19 to recover my aging collection of old laptops, which I have accumulated during the last 10 years or so. Why Linux Mint ?? I've always liked its look and feel, basically it uses the Windows "Start" menu style, which of course makes it easier for me to use. Its intuitive, its not KDE or Gnome nor XFCE. Its also incredibly fast and powerful. There are loads of software written for Linux, and it is very secure, no virus checker required.
So, the kit I have rebuilt this last two days is as follows :
1 - An early Samsung N130 netbook used in "field engineering" to test compatibility for use by students, useless, infrastructure wasn't capable at the time;
2 - a Toshiba NB250 "Mini Notebook" - a netbook in all but name - but good enough spec with 250Gb HDD and RAM upgrade to 4Gb. This was a better field engineering candidate, fast and full compliment of ports etc, including the essential wired & wireless network connx;
3 - Two x IBM Thinkpads - the Road Warriors weapon of choice, and also favored by banks and corporate, which is how I was able to buy them cheaply on eBay. I had bought a few of these & resold them, but kept these two and upgraded them as required;
4 - Three Acer laptops - 2 x 15.6" and a 17" model. They were mediocre Windows devices, but with LM 19 installed they are more than capable devices;
5 and of course this HP G6 laptop.
Happy to say that LM 19 has recovered them all apart from the 3 other machines ( two old Dells & a Toshiba ) which had already been cannibalized.
An LM 19 install is in my opinion much better than Windows 10 as there are no upgrade issues, as LM 19 updates a "rolling release" being updated on the fly, even downloading the correct hardware drivers during the installation, and with no constant nagging about virus protection - Linux doesn't need it, and everything which I use on the other PCs and tablets works just perfectly. I am proving this just now by writing this blog update on the HP G6. In fact, its so good, that I will keep the HP Pavilion G6 - for my own personal Linux Laptop.
The Linux Mint installs went perfectly, the lower spec netbooks and the Thinkpads got the 32bit version of LM, the Acers and the HP got the 64bit edition. I used USB sticks to install from, much quicker and convenient. I also took Joe Collins advice [ channel on YOUTUBE ] and setup the disk write-cache to ON, enabled the nearest source repositories for updates, and set the Firewall to ON. Then, as LM 19 Welcome Screen advises, I used the Timeshift utility to take a snapshot of the system as is. I rebooted the device(s) and that updated the installed sources etc, and had to reset one laptop back to the original sources. Not a problem, and to be honest they all seamlessly work the same. I then added the CHROMIUM browser ( a different but same flavour of ) Google Chrome. Libre Office is installed by default, so for convenience it is also replicated on the desktop. On one of the Acers and the HP G6 I installed the document creation / publishing package Scribus, purely as my IT background was originally in Desktop Publishing. Its a test of how far Linux applications have come in the 25+ years that I have been using Linux o/s. I also installed on the HP device Abiword and Gnumeric ( WP & Spreadsheet ), and PIX for managing photos, and a couple of other utilities such as Partition Magic which I have used for years to recover disk drives which Windows wont read.
So there you have it, I seem to be back on the track again, in the groove, on the IT trail.
I hope that I will be able to continue.
More updates soon........
Last month, two days before my 65th birthday, I was offered a job as a "Deskside Engineer" and so I have decided to take up the offer. I've been working in IT for nearly 35 years, I've done a load of stuff, consequently I have acquired ability and accumulated experience.
So I am just updating / refreshing the stuff I have forgot..... YouTube is fantastic, an online " here's what they dont teach you " school.
So, the kit I have rebuilt this last two days is as follows :
1 - An early Samsung N130 netbook used in "field engineering" to test compatibility for use by students, useless, infrastructure wasn't capable at the time;
2 - a Toshiba NB250 "Mini Notebook" - a netbook in all but name - but good enough spec with 250Gb HDD and RAM upgrade to 4Gb. This was a better field engineering candidate, fast and full compliment of ports etc, including the essential wired & wireless network connx;
3 - Two x IBM Thinkpads - the Road Warriors weapon of choice, and also favored by banks and corporate, which is how I was able to buy them cheaply on eBay. I had bought a few of these & resold them, but kept these two and upgraded them as required;
4 - Three Acer laptops - 2 x 15.6" and a 17" model. They were mediocre Windows devices, but with LM 19 installed they are more than capable devices;5 and of course this HP G6 laptop.
Happy to say that LM 19 has recovered them all apart from the 3 other machines ( two old Dells & a Toshiba ) which had already been cannibalized.
An LM 19 install is in my opinion much better than Windows 10 as there are no upgrade issues, as LM 19 updates a "rolling release" being updated on the fly, even downloading the correct hardware drivers during the installation, and with no constant nagging about virus protection - Linux doesn't need it, and everything which I use on the other PCs and tablets works just perfectly. I am proving this just now by writing this blog update on the HP G6. In fact, its so good, that I will keep the HP Pavilion G6 - for my own personal Linux Laptop.
The Linux Mint installs went perfectly, the lower spec netbooks and the Thinkpads got the 32bit version of LM, the Acers and the HP got the 64bit edition. I used USB sticks to install from, much quicker and convenient. I also took Joe Collins advice [ channel on YOUTUBE ] and setup the disk write-cache to ON, enabled the nearest source repositories for updates, and set the Firewall to ON. Then, as LM 19 Welcome Screen advises, I used the Timeshift utility to take a snapshot of the system as is. I rebooted the device(s) and that updated the installed sources etc, and had to reset one laptop back to the original sources. Not a problem, and to be honest they all seamlessly work the same. I then added the CHROMIUM browser ( a different but same flavour of ) Google Chrome. Libre Office is installed by default, so for convenience it is also replicated on the desktop. On one of the Acers and the HP G6 I installed the document creation / publishing package Scribus, purely as my IT background was originally in Desktop Publishing. Its a test of how far Linux applications have come in the 25+ years that I have been using Linux o/s. I also installed on the HP device Abiword and Gnumeric ( WP & Spreadsheet ), and PIX for managing photos, and a couple of other utilities such as Partition Magic which I have used for years to recover disk drives which Windows wont read.
So there you have it, I seem to be back on the track again, in the groove, on the IT trail.
I hope that I will be able to continue.
More updates soon........
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