Corporate build - partial fail 20:35

After months of trying, my works laptop finally received the attention of a friendly and skilled desktop support 'guy'.  So, this morning I took another (l-o-n-g) drive to Canary Wharf.  I met up with the desktop guy, and we tested the VPN, made sure the Office apps fired up, and ensured that Pointsec was 'happy'.  I trudged back to the motor, jumped in and set off on the (l-o-n-g) journey home.
With two thirds of the working day used up, I felt that I really should get online and inspect what was in my mailbox.  My good mood was soon shot down when I tried to get the damned works laptop to do anything useful.  The highlights:

• Getting a stable VPN connection on the all-new Juniper software took two reboots and seven or eight attempts
• MS Communicator is blocked by the Windows Firewall (an oxymoron, surely?); if I click the 'unblock' button, I see a UAC prompt - read on.
• My 'network drives' aren't reconnected (having this work is one of the reasons for the switch to the new VPN software, I suppose)
• Avaya IP Softphone is blocked by the Windows Firewall, again, another up a UAC prompt
• Avaya IP Softphone isn't configured; I'm prompted to create a database file in a place for which I don't have permissions to write

The UAC prompt is the issue the 'amuses' me most; being a corporate laptop I'm not considered to be computer savvy and as such, the admin privs that the UAC asks for, can't be granted by me.  Sure, I can have a desktop support person do the job, but, I have to sell a limb to get the ticket in front of a real person, and even then, I have to be in the office...

I realise that developing a 'corporate' desktop is fairly hard work.  However, as a user, the incarnation I've been expected to use over the last year or so has failed at almost every opportunity.


I suppose I could go on about using Linux; I'll not jump on that wagon, yet.  There is a possibility that I'll have a chance to influence such a decision in the next year or so, and I'm going to (seriously) look at whether it's a real possibility.  Maybe having been on the user side of the fence, I'll be able to develop a 'corporate' solution that really works.
Arrogant? Maybe.  Time will tell...

MrsB keeps Ubuntu 20:24

Back in April, MrsB's laptop had Vista nuked and Ubuntu installed.  After a few days, I wondered when she'd "accept" Ubuntu as her choice of OS or switch back to Vista.
Well, after 86 days, I figure that the choice is pretty much made, and as such, I'll be reclaiming the 120Gb HDD that came out of her laptop to replace the one of mine that went into her laptop.
Again, Linux takes another small step towards being ready for the desktop.  Hurrah!

Behind the bullshit process.... 21:45

... is often a few good people.

Now that the firm has stopped my VPN access, and I had a fairly (very!) quiet working day yesterday, today was the day of the company laptop fix.  At least, that was the plan.  My gaffer raised a trouble ticket on my behalf, yesterday, to give the desktop support team(s) a chance to get themselves ready for a one-day-fix today.
The ticket (raised at 11am) was serviced at 4pm, by someone in the Belfast, who had assigned the ticket to.... someone else in Belfast; whilst that's progress, it's not great for me, heading towards a random hotdesk in Canary Wharf, London.
By 11am today, the ticket was still waiting for an update, and after intervention of various people who really shouldn't need to be involved, and being told we were supposed to raise a different ticket on a different system (<sigh>) the ticket was assigned to the London desktop team by... 1pm!  It only took 26 hours to get assigned correctly! w00t!

However, things took a turn for the better when the desktop support guy that had been assigned to my ticket, arrived at my desk at 2pm.  After various attempts, several patches, and around 10 reboots (it's a Windows box, in case you hadn't guessed), he conceded defeat and said he'd rebuild the system from scratch.  Furthermore, after another couple of hours, he was very apologetic that the rebuild wasn't fixed, and due to the utter shiteness of Pointsec, it was-nae gonna be finished by 5.30pm.  He then took time to try and come up with an alternative solution to keep me working (not his job, but admirable nonetheless).  Finally, and considering I work remotely most of the time, he offered to have the laptop delivered to me by courier when it was finally finished.

So, despite the shouldn't-be-required effort to get the ticket looked at, being told (too late) to use ticket system B instead of A, once a real live person was actually ready to do the work, his level of service and expertise was truly superb. 
Isn't it a tragedy that such good people are hidden (buried?) behind such a huge quantity of process and procedure?

Management people, Powerpoint Warriors, VP of paperclips; remember, it's only the people at the sharp end that know where the gold is buried.

Security != Productivity 14:36

As expected, my company has finally cut off the VPN connectivity I rely upon each day.  And, as expected, the alternative connectivity (a web based portal) doesn't work.

My company provided/managed laptop is still unusable.  Tomorrow, is my 'office' day, and my manager has pre-emptively raised a trouble ticket in a last ditch attempt to get the support folks to rebuild the company laptop.


As a result, I'm at a bit of a loose end, and not able to do that much.  Weirdly, whilst I could (and should?) simply take off to the pub and enjoy the sun, I feel as though I should be working and doing something useful.

Toothpaste 21:59

How many types of toothpaste can I buy?  For example, there are toothpastes that:

• whiten
• rebuild eroded enamel
• reduce sensitivity
  
• 'oxygen' feature
  
• claim to be 'total'
• 'professional'
• 'ice' fresh
• protect gums

Which one will do all of those things?

When death isn't the end of it all 17:36

Michael Jackson is dead.  A former idol and 'king of pop' who's fallen from his pedestal, will not be able to complete the revival tour and rebuild his image.
I expected that his death would linger in the news for a little while, as the media loves a good story like this to fill pages and airtime.  I wasn't prepared for the sheer volume of crud that was about to his the streets.  For example, the front page of todays 'The Sun' newspaper:

 

Look beyond the names of the drugs; the important thing in this picture is the fact that the 'story' takes up pages 2 through 15 (although writing each page number out makes for a better headline, I guess).  That number of pages is pretty much half of the entire newspaper.
And here is where it all starts; the content of those pages mirrors the rest of the media, all now alive with the excitement of a good conspiracy story.
Why does the media go to such lengths to make this sort of story into an epic tale of criminality, debauchery and misery?  Do the public really want to read all of this stuff?  Can the media actually prove that the public wants, no, needs to hear about every tiny detail?  I doubt it, but then, the fact that the media all publish what they think the public want, then the public have no choice but to read/watch what is presented to them.
I really don't care that much that Michael Jackson is dead, and I'd much rather that the obituaries were written, read, and then leave it all well alone.
As a consumer, I have only one choice, and that's not to consume what the media has to offer.  I think I'll be revisiting my low information diet plan again.

How to read whilst you drive 16:55

Having resigned from my current job, I'm planning ahead to the 'new' job, and how to handle some of the changes that are coming up.
The new job means I'll no longer work from home most of the time, and will likely be covering a lot of miles.  30,000/year sort of miles...
The only benefit that a train has over a car (that you drive, as opposed to being driven by a chauffeur) is that the time spent travelling needn't be dead time.  The choices are many; do some stuff on the laptop, play on the Nintendo DS, read books.
Whilst musing over the loss of two useful hours each day (driving/commuting) Andre suggested that I could still 'do' books, by listening to audio books.  But of course!  Why didn't I think of that?
Having an Amazon 'Prime' account, along with a motivation ('reason') to buy (audio)books is rather a dangerous situation for me... so many titles, so quick and easy to order, so fast for delivery...

I must step away from the computer now before I do something both my bank balance and I might regret ;)

The Lunch Box Diet 17:06

A little over a week ago I started using 'Walk with me' on the Nintendo DS.  I fairly quickly realised that my current work-from-home setup means I'm particularly sedentary, and struggle to meet the 'easy' and deliberately low target of 3000 steps per day.
A change of job means that I'll soon be spending much of my time in an office; whilst this means my daily step count should go right up, it also means I'll have to work out what I'm going to eat during the day, as picking something out of the fridge, or meeting MrsB for lunch, is no longer going to be an option.
Usefully, I have a copy of an ebook, called 'the lunch box diet'.  The basic idea is that most people (at least, those wanting to lose some weight) have fallen into the bad habit of eating until they feel full.  This is worse than it sounds as there is a lag between when you're actually full and your brain realises you're full, and in the end, you overeat.  As a result, the stomach stretches, and over time, can take on more food; this feeds a vicious circle where the 'feeling full' lag means an ever increasing food intake and a growing stomach.
The lunch box diet has a goal to shrink the stomach; so inbetween breakfast and dinner, you graze, eating every hour or couple of hours, out of the lunchbox.  Of course, what's in the lunchbox is carefully prepared to be healthy and nutritious.

A big part of the battle against eating too much is in the mind; I keep trying believe that Steve Tyler really did say: "Nothing tastes better than the feeling of thin."

I figure I'll give 'the lunch box diet' a go.  Watch this space.

Air con for the London Underground, at last 20:24

Way back in 2002, I was in Manhattan on my first business trip for the firm.  After spending an evening at an interesting restaurant on the NJ side of the river, my team (some UK based, some US based) & I hopped onto the PATH train.
There was a short delay waiting for the train to depart, but, even in the humid and sticky heat of the evening, we were all cool.  This is because the trains were all cooled by powerful air conditioning.
I was quite taken aback that an underground train had air conditioning, having spent many years leaking sweat on many of the underground trains of London.
However, my US team mates were gobsmacked that the London Underground wasn't air conditioned at all!
Seven years later, it's all change please, all change... As reported by the BBC, there is now a trial of air conditioned rolling stock for the London Underground.  w00t!
Let's see, if we're lucky, there might even be air conditioning on all the underground trains by, <sharp-intake-of-breath> 2012 in time for the Olympics!  Incredible.

(Yes, sarcasm intended...)

After 2675 days... 20:03

... I have resigned from my current role.  Whilst I feel an overwhelming sense of relief that it's done, I am ever so slightly wary of walking away from what I've lived & breathed for the last seven years.  But, I'm pleased to no longer the frog in boiling water, and looking forward to the challenges ahead...

Better product or bigger profits? 21:22

I expect that, like many blokes, I automatically switched from a 'Gillette Mach 3':

 ...to a 'Gillette Fusion Power':

... almost as soon as the newer product hit the stores a few years ago.  To use, it was a bit bigger, but (at the time) seemed to do it's job equally as well as the older razor.
Fast forward to today; the country is technically in recession, interest rates at rock bottom, there's quantitative easing, and in this household, outgoings under are constant and close scrutiny.
MrsB was a little shocked (but not as much as I was) when she searched for the blade refills I'd asked for.  A pack of 8 blades would cost £18.53.  Holy shit!  That's £2.32 each!
I asked her to look up the older style blades (as I still have the handle) and they came in at £9.76, or £1.22 each, or most pertinently, half the cost.  The older style blades were ordered.
This morning, my first shave with the Mach3 blades was comfortable and effective.  In actual fact, the razor glided better, grabbed less, and the overall result was no better or worse that the supposedly superior Fusion Power razor.

So, the obvious question is what does the Fusion do better than the Mach3 in order to justify a 50% price increase?  The only real answer I can come up with is to provide bigger profits for Gillette (which is Proctor & Gamble, right?).  I'm not against companies making profits per se, but I do object to such a massive increase in cost to me (the consumer) with no visible benefit.

Seems I'll be buying Mach3 blades for the foreseeable future...

Channel 4 On Demand, for some 19:17

Annoyingly, I'd missed something on Channel 4.  No problem I thought, I'll head on over to C4's on demamd streaming site, imaginatively called '4OD'.
This is what I saw:

 

 

Why do I have to use Microsoft software?  I'll accept no bullshit excuses, as the BBC manages to support Linux perfectly well with the iPlayer.
Sadly, and once again, a major organisation has failed to utilise open standards and favoured a closed-source/proprietary system.
I can only hope that the BBC takes control of Channel 4, and extends the iPlayer service to cover Channel 4 content too.

Of food and faith 18:49

^{Images lifted directly (and I mean directly) from BBC News}

Recently, another instance of someone 'seeing' the face of Jesus hit the news.  It's the latest in a long line of (mostly Christians) 'seeing' things in everyday objects.

For example:

'Face of Jesus' on hawthorn tree


Ghanaians flock to see 'miracle'


India marvels at 'miracle chapati'



Caravan park 'Christ' draws the faithful


I'm always puzzled as to why it's (mostly) Jesus that is the 'seen' image, and if not Jesus, it'll be something religious.  I figure it's because a) religious people are more likely to 'see' something that's important to them, and b) they're more likely to believe that 'seeing' something is significant (and not chance, nor the brains ability to 'see' faces in pretty much anything).

I can't help but wonder if, in a few years, the blind faith of any particular type of fanboi will result in more news stories of this type.  Perhaps now is the time to start setting up some of the greatest hoaxes of all time.  An Apple logo on a vegetarian burger patty?  The image of a Ferrari prancing horse in a Zebras marking? The face of Hans Solo within a slab of granite?

Worst CEOs "evah!" 19:17

This Business Insider "Worst CEO's Ever" article includes this:

Prince told the Financial Times: "...as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing."  They certainly were.  Shortly after Prince got fired, Citi imploded.  It's now owned by the taxpayers.