Yesterday I installed Win2008 x64 from the launch kit, onto a new Poweredge server. It installed fine, then added HyperV role to it, which went fine, then installed Win2008 again as a VM. Then opened Disk Management, and the machine froze. Created a new VM, same problem. Uninstalled HyperV and tried to install VMware server. It wouldn't recognize the the NIC's.
So not only is Microsoft's hypervisor still barely out of alpha, but you can even run other hypervisors on it. Ow.
I've found the worst about IT for small business is web development. It ends up being the most frustrating, unproductive thing. First of all, I always end up with business owners who have too many opinions. They don't care about the rest of IT as long as it works. But they care a lot whether the footer on the homepage has a 2px border or a 1px border. That kind of micromanagement gets demoralizing fast.
And the same business owner who says they want better website design, really needs better website content first. Design is fun with a lot of content available. With no content or pictures, design is almost impossible.
And then I end up with graphic designers who tell us "sure, I can do HTML/CSS" but really can't. They are competent users of Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and can create a decent mockup, but then deliver webpages containing lousy markup, with text replaced by images that's basically invisible to search engines. (I guess if they understood HTML better, they'd call themselves web developers not designers.) A geek can use that as a starting point and create well-formed markup, but that's not usually what's planned.
So now what I do is tell small business owners to just find another random website they like, and then import that template, and customize it from there.
The Sharepoint wiki is "not usable"? We've been using it the past year for documenting our server setup and changes. The sharepoint wiki site is one of the few tools that Microsoft got right. It's simple, basically letting you edit, scroll, and click on links. It does not distract you with smart tags, office integration, or XML. And by default it does NT authentication, which is transparent in a typical microsoft shop.
The Sharepoint wiki markup does suffer from div-itis, and it doesn't have the feature set of Confluence, but it's great as a starting point. You put your data in, let it grow, show it to management (who tend to like it because it's gives them confidence that documentation is happening), and then later you can decide to keep it, or export the contents to some other platform.
Firefox + Safari is already at around 25% for the US municipal website I manage, so how do you figure Microsoft is at 80% for not just browsers, but homepages?
I've been using Nanofilm Clarity Defender on my car windshield for years. Similar to RainX, but better. It's a fluoro-functional chlorosilane, which basically coats glass with a somewhat crystalline Tefloney surface. Better than Teflon PTFE, too; pure, amorphous Teflon PTFE is really porous.
What does P2I offer that's new? Looking at patent 6551950, they're doing O2 plasma, followed by a plasma with fluoroinated stuff. CF4/CH2F2 plasma is old hat. Looks like P2I did some experimenting with random other molecules and found one that works better.
From my experience, the anecdotal complaint about Comcast's customer service is simply not true. Compared to other technology service providers, I'd rate their customer service 'excellent'.
When you move into a building and order Comcast, they get things set up and working that day. When I have a problem and call them, within 2-5 minutes I always get a tech with enough clue to test the line and debug from the command prompt. If my problem requires a truck rollout, I can usually get one the next day. They generally don't finger point. If the problem is their equipment, they end up fixing it.
Compare that with DSL, T1, and even Fios, Comcast makes things very easy. DSL is a hack that seems more likely to not work than work on new setups. T1's are painful to provision. FiOS installation can be really screwy if you don't have a Verizon landline (I had eight tech visits, and one of them even ran a 2nd fiber loop when I added FiOS TV to FiOS internet), if FiOS is available at all.
That's not to say that Comcast's policies (P2P, bandwidth limits), pricing, speed, and monopoly power are not evil. But as far as customer service is concerned, I think they're ahead of the curve.
The survey results are probably bogus. A lot of people who don't have antivirus software will lie and say "of course i do", either out of embarrassment or avoid a sales pitch.
Maybe google has no official hardware initiative to share with analysts, who are focused on money-making ventures. But google's researchers apparently have the freedom to dabble in computer hardware quite a bit...
Plato wrote about the Egyptian king Thamus lamenting that the invention of writing would hurt memory. If gadgetry and Johnny-Mnemonics hurt memory more, then it's just a continuation of something begun 5000 years ago.
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Yesterday I installed Win2008 x64 from the launch kit, onto a new Poweredge server. It installed fine, then added HyperV role to it, which went fine, then installed Win2008 again as a VM. Then opened Disk Management, and the machine froze. Created a new VM, same problem. Uninstalled HyperV and tried to install VMware server. It wouldn't recognize the the NIC's.
So not only is Microsoft's hypervisor still barely out of alpha, but you can even run other hypervisors on it. Ow.
This is somewhat old news. The nanoradio is probably picoradio by now.
I've found the worst about IT for small business is web development. It ends up being the most frustrating, unproductive thing. First of all, I always end up with business owners who have too many opinions. They don't care about the rest of IT as long as it works. But they care a lot whether the footer on the homepage has a 2px border or a 1px border. That kind of micromanagement gets demoralizing fast.
And the same business owner who says they want better website design, really needs better website content first. Design is fun with a lot of content available. With no content or pictures, design is almost impossible.
And then I end up with graphic designers who tell us "sure, I can do HTML/CSS" but really can't. They are competent users of Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and can create a decent mockup, but then deliver webpages containing lousy markup, with text replaced by images that's basically invisible to search engines. (I guess if they understood HTML better, they'd call themselves web developers not designers.) A geek can use that as a starting point and create well-formed markup, but that's not usually what's planned.
So now what I do is tell small business owners to just find another random website they like, and then import that template, and customize it from there.
The Sharepoint wiki is "not usable"? We've been using it the past year for documenting our server setup and changes. The sharepoint wiki site is one of the few tools that Microsoft got right. It's simple, basically letting you edit, scroll, and click on links. It does not distract you with smart tags, office integration, or XML. And by default it does NT authentication, which is transparent in a typical microsoft shop.
The Sharepoint wiki markup does suffer from div-itis, and it doesn't have the feature set of Confluence, but it's great as a starting point. You put your data in, let it grow, show it to management (who tend to like it because it's gives them confidence that documentation is happening), and then later you can decide to keep it, or export the contents to some other platform.
Yeah, the absence of MSI and GPO is a huge downer. Mozilla Corp is passing on so much revenue, not-supporting those two features.
If nothing else, I'd like to deploy FF for personal webbrowsing. Tell users to use IE just for work stuff.
Firefox + Safari is already at around 25% for the US municipal website I manage, so how do you figure Microsoft is at 80% for not just browsers, but homepages?
Travel with a companion who has big boobs, and nobody notices your face, especially not a bunch of government employees.
I've been using Nanofilm Clarity Defender on my car windshield for years. Similar to RainX, but better. It's a fluoro-functional chlorosilane, which basically coats glass with a somewhat crystalline Tefloney surface. Better than Teflon PTFE, too; pure, amorphous Teflon PTFE is really porous.
What does P2I offer that's new? Looking at patent 6551950, they're doing O2 plasma, followed by a plasma with fluoroinated stuff. CF4/CH2F2 plasma is old hat. Looks like P2I did some experimenting with random other molecules and found one that works better.
From my experience, the anecdotal complaint about Comcast's customer service is simply not true. Compared to other technology service providers, I'd rate their customer service 'excellent'.
When you move into a building and order Comcast, they get things set up and working that day. When I have a problem and call them, within 2-5 minutes I always get a tech with enough clue to test the line and debug from the command prompt. If my problem requires a truck rollout, I can usually get one the next day. They generally don't finger point. If the problem is their equipment, they end up fixing it.
Compare that with DSL, T1, and even Fios, Comcast makes things very easy. DSL is a hack that seems more likely to not work than work on new setups. T1's are painful to provision. FiOS installation can be really screwy if you don't have a Verizon landline (I had eight tech visits, and one of them even ran a 2nd fiber loop when I added FiOS TV to FiOS internet), if FiOS is available at all.
That's not to say that Comcast's policies (P2P, bandwidth limits), pricing, speed, and monopoly power are not evil. But as far as customer service is concerned, I think they're ahead of the curve.
Wait, I thought the humans built Zion underground because it's warm?
The picture on the NASA website shows the researcher in her lab creating high-purity nanotubes, and she's wearing street clothes.
How can the organization that makes $20 million spacesuits not use $20 labcoats?
it's just like Microsoft to clog up your network with stale, unscavenged records
and we still can't manage to purge 'WORKGROUP' and 'MSHOME' from our WINS
Why dual boot when you can virtualize? Preinstall an Ubuntu VM on top of Windows OS.
At the cost of a gigabyte of RAM and disk space, it makes hardware drivers a snap, and gives the consumer more flexibility.
Unless you're running arcade games on Ubuntu, I don't see much reason to dual-boot.
make every cent count!
The survey results are probably bogus. A lot of people who don't have antivirus software will lie and say "of course i do", either out of embarrassment or avoid a sales pitch.
Which will be longer, this guy's sentence in jail, or Kerry's sentence in response to the question?
Maybe google has no official hardware initiative to share with analysts, who are focused on money-making ventures. But google's researchers apparently have the freedom to dabble in computer hardware quite a bit...
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/26/2039213
Plato wrote about the Egyptian king Thamus lamenting that the invention of writing would hurt memory. If gadgetry and Johnny-Mnemonics hurt memory more, then it's just a continuation of something begun 5000 years ago.