It's a Blog ! Not a Log !

I’ve got 8 Invites going if anyone wants any . . .  just leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

So what is google wave, well lets see what google have to say about it:

“Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation
and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”

 

 

I’ve not played about with it much myself as yet, but it does look as if it could be fun, I’ve so far had one wave sent to me which is all about things to do and places to drink in and around Chorlton-cum-Hardy, the idea from what I can tell is when the Wave reaches a person they can either pass it on to someone else in there friends group as it is or they can add their own input to it, say by adding a video, a map, a comment, a link, well just about anything really and thus the waves gets more information and grows, at the same time all those who have previously recieved the wave will get the copy they have in there inbox updated with all the new content added since they recieved it, pretty cool or what.

Anyway if the above description is wrong let me know, cause as I say I’m only just learning my way round it, so some of the above could be wrong.

today and what a ball ache this is, we’ve had 4 new PC’s for about 6months waiting to be swapped out with older ones in the main office area and so far I’ve started and stopped this job about 3-4 times, due to Management changing there minds about how important a job it is, anyway they finally decide that I can start the job for real on Monday and tell me they want it finishing for Friday. . . .  , now that might seem possible, however by having the job finished by Firday what they mean is they want me to install the OS & all the associated software relevant to that PC position and then set up all the use/network settings and once done securly wipe the old PC, reinstall the OS, then relocate the old PC’s into new Positions in the Distribution/Shop areas and again install all the relevant software needed in the those areas to operate the PC’s correctly, not forgettingthat as we don’t use exchange here I’ll first need to copy all the PST files off the 4 old PC’s onto a Network share, then copy them back onto the new PC’s and import into Outlook (on average the size of PST files so far has been anything between 2-3 gig, so long time exporting and importing of.

This job would be a lot easier if we actually had some cloning software available as then I ccould just set up one PC with the main settings that all users have and than just import the PST nad the odd personnel stuff and software they might use, but alas they have’nt, so somehow I don’t think I’ll be completed for Friday.

As of this evening I’d managed to install 3 New PC’s, wipe 1 and reinstall that in its new location, so just 1 new one and 3 old ones to do, reckon Tuesday/wednesday will be finished.

Oh the joy of working in IT, everyone expects you to work miracles and when you don’t wonder why . . . well maybe its because you give stupid deadlines and don’t think about discussing with the IT Dept beforehand.

this site is definatly the one to go to to find out about the power of your PC/Laptop http://www.computerpowertest.com/ This site is not only good for beginners, but also good for the advanced PC user, it certainly surprised me with the results.

this time they’ve been helping the members of a local Age Concern keep fit and healthy, heres a few pictures and the press release :

FIT WITH THE OLD FOLKS!

Members from a Manchester based Age Concern group turn to the Wii Fit to help keep active

Members from Out in the City, a local Age Concern group have struck upon a novel way of keeping fit.  Leisurely walks, bowls and swimming have been usurped in favour of a new hi-tech training tool – the Wii Fit.

Four members, aged in their late 50s, 60s and 70s, visited the new wireless lite Carphone Warehouse store at the Trafford Centre this week and were given a demonstration in the popular game.

After the demonstration, the store donated the Wii Fit console and game to Age Concern so that members will regularly be able to use the different Wii fitness games, helping to keep themselves active and agile.

Thanks to the games console, they will now be able to regularly participate in Tai Chi, fitness programmes and can even monitor their posture and BMI.  For those wanting something a little more strenuous, snowboarding, skiing and dance classes are the order of the day!

Jane Barcoe of Age Concern said, “The members love keeping active and doing something different!  This is a great gift from The Carphone Warehouse and I’m sure we’ll have no shortage of people who want to use the Wii Fit.  This is a really innovative way to help our members interact and keep fit!”

Neil Sears, Store Manger of  The Carphone Warehouse at the Trafford Centre, said, “Technology can be a great way to connect with other people and in this instance a perfect way to keep fit too.  The range of technology on the market is expanding, and age shouldn’t be a barrier so our aim is to breakdown the walls and make gadgets simple for everyone.”

The ‘wireless lite’ Carphone Warehouse at the Trafford Centre offers a wider range of mobile communications such as laptops and gaming products too.  The store is one of four to be trialled across England and offering a new format, with expert advice and counsel given on all manner of high-tech issues and gadgets.

Got a call from Sally mum today, she’s been having a few issues with her PC, could’nt connect to the interweb, seems the new Kaspersky Anti-virus suite she’d installed was playing havoc with internet I.E.8, had a look in the settings and discovered that it was the suspicious scripts tab causing all the problems, so had to disable it, anyway its all hunkydory now and they can surf to their hearts content.

Anyway on the way there saw a nasty prang between 4 cars just before Junction 19 on the M56, looked like one had rear-ended another than the other 2 cars had clipped each other as they breaked, luckily there were 2 Police outriders a couple of cars back and they soon offered assistance, after I left the motorway saw a couple of Paramedics racing to the scene, did’nt look as though anyone was seriously injured, just maybe shaken up and a few bruises.

So after all that excitement I’m now home contemplating what to do with myself for the rest of the day, considering heading over to electriks and see if Lukes about for a brew and a chat, but until then going to catch up on Series 1 of Cold Case . .

And was presently surprised to discover that it’s a Dell Inspiron 1750 Laptop, 17″ Display, Dual Core, 250gig drive and 4gig of Ram

Quite liking it alot, so anyways arrived at the Carphone Warehouse at 10:45am and by 11:00am the photographer had arrived and then spent the next hour having photo’s of me in various poses picking up the prize, hopefully be getting some pictures emailed across to me by the Photographer a very nice man called Paul Francis, his website can be found here Paul Francis Photography, check the site out to see the sort of work he does, I think you’ll be impressed, plus he’s a top bloke

After having the photo’s taken I rang Keri at Bisslancaster to thank them, after all it’s not every day you win a laptop is it . . ., also thanked the people at Carphone Warehouse and the guys behind Geek Squad for donating the Lap Top as a prize, hoping that in the next few weeks that I’ll get a call telling me whether I’ll be getting gadgets to review for them or not, hoping I will as I have in mind to set up a sub-domain on my webhost and set up a specific blog just for the reviews.

Now suppose I’d best go play with the new Lap Top a little bit more so that I can hopefully review it on here

Thanks again Carphone Warehouse

Seems our company had some people in at work over the weekend carry out some sort of IT Audit, think it was to do with the network being a bit slow etc, from what I can gather they carried out tests on all the company PC’s to see what speeds they we’re getting, what there configuration/settings were and also to see what software they had installed on them.

So no doubt a report will be coming out detailing the rights and wrongs with the system and I’ll be collared for a little chat at some point, I’ll obviously be in the wrong cause I always am . .  apparently, though to be honest I ain’t a network genius, all my IT skills are self-taught and I think I’ve done pretty damn good considering I’ve been there 10yrs now and in that time I’ve recovered the system 2 times due to accidents/errors that where caused by outside influences that were not related to the IT Dept, a Power Surge and teh broadband going down and to think in 10yrs we’ve only ever had one 1 virus outbreak in the company that I got on top of straight away.

How many other IT Depts can boast that

Anyway just have to wait and see what comes of the reading of the report.

Just had Martin the sparky round doing me a guvy job, he’s installed some Cat 5 cabling from the front room to the spare bedroom, so now we won’t be tripping over the 20ft of Cat 5 cabling trailing down the stairs anymore

Thats one less job in the house to do now

Just found an option in Tweetdeck which allows me to search for specific word’s/strings in Twitter posts, thus say I type Manchester into the search facility, anytime someone posts a Twitter with the word Manchester in it, I get a notification and then I just look to see whats been Twittered.

Due to this I now know that some woman has been stood atop the Ibis/Urbis building in Manchester ranting and raving and threatening to throw herself off the roof, I’ve also learnt that some of the crowd gathered below were openly encouraging her to do it (thats Northern folk for you, just do it and don’t bother us).

Also found a few new Cane Corso owners after running a search string with that as the words, I’m now getting to understand why people actually use Twitter and can become addicted to it . .

Yep its a Sunday morning, a day of rest, but here I am about to head into work to finish off the repatching, just got my wake up call from Martin the engineer, so best get my act into gear, make some breakfast and get my arse down there pronto.

Will probably give Tony a bell about 9:30am, I’m letting him have a bit of a lie-in as he did’nt leave here till about 9:00pm last night, he was unlucky enough to be collared by the MD, who got him to help him finish some spreadsheets he was working on, so poor Tony ended up doing a 13hr day yesterday, so he deserves a lie-in I think.