December 2007 - Posts
Heard this today:
Apparently, in Dublin today, a guy in a wheelchair tried to hold up an Ulster Bank, but was caught.
As the title says, the ACES team have worked really hard to get this our before Christmas, and Phil posts all the download links on his blog for us all.
Nice one.
If only time allowed for me to use FSX, I would be posting more about this update… but there are now far more FS bloggers than the old days and I am sure you will get some great reviews from those guys!
No, it’s not Microsoft bashing week…. but another annoyance today. We are being punished for being a small company, selling to a global small company, and Microsoft don’t seem to care.
We have a client that is essentially 5 small offices spread out around the world. They range from 5 to 50 users per site, with about 150 users worldwide. As their I.T solution provider, they trust us, they want to work with us, and they want us to have the I.T business they require.
A few months ago, planning started on moving them from separate domains, to one larger domain via MPLS links. We have arranged everything, including the Microsoft licencing (moving them from OEM to Full Licence). We convinced them that it is right to move to this more expensive solution from Microsoft and then the we hit the crunch. (After the order was placed)
Open Licence is for Europe only. I need a select agreement, but I cannot get that as the client is under 250 users. A request to the licencing team to allow a global agreement was rejected.
How about that… I am a small company, and Microsoft want me to essentially just hand this business to another company in the USA!
That sucks.
Forewarning, this is a rant….
Maybe I am just annoyed because today Rachel and I had to work on accounts and this was her computer that was not working, but this is crazy and I have to get it off my chest…
Right now, I am looking at a machine, no more than two years old, Pentium-M, 2GB RAM, 7200RPM Hard Drive. It is running Windows XP, is fully patched, and took me a day to install because of the 150+ updates I had to download across a damn crappy wireless internet connection. All works well… and then….
I install Office 2007, with SP1, and that horrific application that is Windows Desktop Search
…this machine is now about as useful as a hooker in a nunnery.
Microsoft. It is time that you started making software that runs on CURRENT hardware and stop developing based on projected hardware expectations!
Rant over… I feel only slightly better.
Merry Christmas.
For a month or so now I have been having pretty nasty issues with Infrared control of devices via both our demo Panorama system and/or DigiLinX IRLinX / MediaLinX 101A combination.
Today, a nice new box and software build turned up that has solved all of that.
The MLA4000 from Netstreams, a small and tidy unit that fits perfectly in a 19’ rack and takes only 1U of space, has replaced 4 MLA101A’s and 1 CL100 unit. Essentially that means that instead of having to use 6U of rack space, you only use 1U. This is great news for any homeowner as space concern is paramount. For the installer is means a much tidier setup.
Whilst the space saving is great, a much more vital issue has been resolved. Since implementing the Panorama system and combining with the DigiLinX system I have had annoying intermittent problems with IR Pass-through control on our test setup. Essentially, the system would sometimes take commands from the remote, queue them up, and then send them all together. Not good if you are browsing a Sky Planner…. Also, if the IRLinX or the PAN700 IR Receiver were located anywhere near a LCD / Plasma, it would end up flooding the IR signal so that commands could not get through to the source device. Lets just say that tempers were tried over the past months and many a remote was broken as it bounced off my LCD… ;)
The great news is that the MLA4000 and the latest firmware build has solved everything in regard to the IR issues, the only remaining issue is some minor IR flooding still remains – so minor in fact that it is hardly noticable. I am assured by Netstreams that very soon an update will be available to fix that which is fantastic.
As I type that, I realise that I should also point out to potential purchasers of the DigiLinX system that a massive bonus of the product is the fact that your chosen installer will be able to provide you with ongoing updates to your product across it’s lifetime that both improve and enhance the product. This really is something that most systems lack (at least easily). NTES are offering a remote update service for Netstreams customers for a small annual fee so the client does not even need one of our engineers to visit the location!
I want to add another comment regarding my issues and working with the guys over at Netstreams Inc. I want to say a big thank-you to all the team I have been working with on these issues over the past couple of months, I have never come across a more “involved” and helpful company. The dedication from the team was amazing, including some of them staying back late just before the American thanksgiving vacation to talk to me, here in Europe, late into the night to ensure that I could work out issues with the demo setup to allow a customer demo to proceed the following day. As far as I am concerned, if Netstreams keep and expand on this “personal employee dedication” they will go far.
... is now available for download. Worth the update.
This happened to me today on an Acronis restored Small Business Server box (to different hardware using universal restore).
The issue is that the HP server that the image came from had HP drivers that ended up blocking the broadcom drivers on the Dell server I was moving to. The way to fix the issue is as follows:
1. Go into a command prompt.
2. type “set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1”
3. Hit return.
4. Type “devmgmt.msc”
5. Hit return.
Once device manager has loaded, go to View, Show Hidden Devices.
You will then see “greyed out” old devices and network cards that you can remove.
Once you reboot all should be well.
If you are running a Snitz forum,
do this NOW. This is a major flaw that could potentially lead to admin access to your forum!