www.majzel.com

Mac Mini SSD 2nd Disk Upgrade

2012-01-29T00:02:00.000+01:00

Ifixit is a famous (to Apple fanboys) company that sells tools and components to upgrade your Apple computers.

As will be clear from this posting Apple is now going to obscene lengths to make it as difficult or near impossible for you to perform any upgrades, except the ones they permit you of course.

But there is one thing that iFxit could not sell me .... new Eyes. Knowing what I know now, upgrading my modest i5 Apple Mac Mini was a terribly stupid idea and I don't recommend it to anybody.

Why is it stupid?

The rear cover of the Mac Mini allows you to replace memory. You can easily put in upto 16GB (2x8GB) SO DIMM. So far so good!
Inserting a new Hard disk (what I document here) involves removing the motherboard but the connectors for the Fan and Wireless are not designed to be removed.
The design is claustrophobic and the chances of you buggering something up are high
To attach the 2nd hard disk you need the iFixit Dual Hard Drive Kit which can only be shipped to Europe at > 30 USD even though the cable weighs less than 50 grams (On the plus side the kit comes with a wire to lever out the motherboard and a Torx set)
All the disk and fan and other sockets are really tiny. I mean a child with perfect eyesight would have difficultly making the reassembly

Anyway here is how it went, and let's just say it all worked out in the end

I used some of the above tools plus large magnifying glasses and 2 headtorches

Getting the back off and memory out was the easy part

By moving the motherboard to the left slightly you can get the Apple Hard disk out

But this is what happens when you try to pull a connector out. Busted!

We will try to fix that later!

This is the Dual drive cable from ifixit

It's like this. With the Mac Mini upside down i.e. looking down onto the internals as is my photos you will find the factory installed disk on the top. I am adding a second 128GB SSD. So my desired config is 128GB disk as primary disk (physically on top) and original Mac Disk (500GB spinning) on the bottom.

So the ifixit cable and hard drive mountings are attached to the Apple Disk. Then my Crucial disk will use the original Mac SATA cable and be placed on the top.

Now the Gotcha: You can't mount the bottom drive without taking the whole motherboard out.

A long while later both hard disks are installed, but we had to take out the Motherboard, insert the disks, then slide back Motherboard.

Also note in above picture the connector I broke still needs fixing.

This ifixit Guide formed the base instructions. Unfortunately ifixit don't mention the fragility and size of the connector blocks.

Power on the and SSD is not found. Take apart again ...

The SATA connector for the SSD had disconnected itself. It's a terribly small, non standard connector, which seems to just sit in position. No reassuring click or confident closure. Not impressed.

Now eventually both SSD and Original 500 GB Hard disk are operational. That was not easy!

Partition the 128GB SSD with 2 Partitions. 127 GB Macintosh SHD for the Operating System and 1GB Recovery SHD for the Recovery Partition

Download SuperDuper and cloned your current OSX Lion to the SSD

Before shutdown in Control Panel select the new Disk as my Startup disk

Rebooted fine (to SSD)

There is a 6Gbps SSD connected on a 6GBps interface .. good.

This Mini has only 8GB of RAM but 16GB is possible, I tested it.

Carbon Copy Cloner (Beta) now has knowledge of Recovery HD, the hidden partition which you should also copy as well as the OSX partition. However I was not confident it would not screw up my original Recovery HD (at this point new Recovery HD was shown above as unititled)

So instead I made Carbon Copy cloner clone my source disk to the new SSD (overwriting SuperDuper's work). In so doing it makes a disk image call Recovery HD.dmg and places it as shown above.

So then I did a Block copy of that image onto the Small 2nd partition that I created (and now renamed from Unititled to Recovery SHD).

Conclusion

Upgrade performed, but really I would not recommend it
Apple are very serious about not wanting you to upgrade their machines. Must be a nightmare to work in their serivce department!
System now boots to a desktop in under 20 seconds
I am still not sure my Recovery Partition is working correctly. Will test laters.

Timings
Power on to ready (including Auto logon) 17 seconds
Power off 16.5 seconds

Links
Crucial Memory for Mac Mini upto 16GB
ifixit Mac Mini 2011 teardown
iFixit Dual Hard Drive Kit
Carbon Copy Supports Recovery HD

Yurbuds What big ears you have

2012-01-28T01:00:00.000+01:00

The quest for the ultimate sports headphones continues. Today I am reviewing my attempt to reach headphone nirvana

Yurbuds

50USD and 2 weeks later a somewhat huge box arrived. Ah well no chance of any damage, I just hope that I don't get a Swiss Customs duty letter in a few days (normally 15CHF + 8%) which would bring the total cost of the purchase to about 70 USD :-(

Anyway in the box are the headphones, a small rather cheap zip pouch, and some replacement red buds (Large) to replace the Medium ones that come fitted.

First impressions? These headphone are flippin enormous! I mean my ears got scared just attempting to insert them, and, I have large ears.

Second impressions? Yes Agata confirmed it was not just me, they are large, large large. Are Americans a race of enormous eared people :-)

So, it has now been a few days and I have the full picture

+They definitely don't fall out ever! You insert them (see this video) then twist them into position
-The red colour, well a bit ostentatious. I would prefer neutral black
=The cord has a woven exterior, in the 1970's you could get electrical wires like these. Quite nice.
- Sound quality against my Sony MDR-EX32LP is inferior.

- There is no tie, to pull the cords together. The Y part is 45 cm's in length and that tends to flap around without a tie
--- If you wear a hat or helmet then the pressure onto the <huge> earphones could be an issue:

To explain. Cyclists wear helmets (its law in Switzerland and you'd be an idiot without one). In cold weather you might also wear a thermal hat.

On a snowboard you would be advised to wear a helmet

Any of the above press from the outside onto the headphone and for me mean cause discomfort or even pain if worn for anything more than 30 minutes.

The size issue has had me searching for more tiny Sony earphones. I just ordered some Sony MDR-EX50LP since the current Sony MDR-EX32LP are so fantastic

Overall, I will try them for a while longer but I just don't see any advantages over my Sony's.

Links
My Previous Headphone finds
Yurbuds main site

Trading Places

2012-01-27T00:30:00.000+01:00

Yes there is still time, but I am afraid only to buy the DVD. Available for as little as 4 GBP I am referring to the 1983 classic movie Trading Places.

This movie is an educational guide as to how a Futures Market would work. You can offer to supply goods e.g. Pork Bellies at a future time at a specific price. Say you offer Bellies at the same price as today. Somebody who wants Pork Bellies in the future might think the price will rise so enters into a contract with you.

In the future then if the price decreased (i.e. did not go up as your buyer expected) then parties are locked to the contract, you win. Alternatively if the street price went up and I had to buy the Pork Bellies later to give to you, then you gain.

Of course the movie does not cover one of the fundamental changes from a gentlemans gentleman industry to one full of Chavs. From an industry when your risked your own money, to one where you risked someone else's.

Aside from the financials I think the movie contains so many memorable scenes and quotes. Here is just one:

Billy Ray: [watches Louis clean his shotgun] You know, you can't just go around and shoot people in the kneecaps with a double-barreled shotgun 'cause you pissed at 'em.

Louis: Why not?

Billy Ray: 'Cause it's called assault with a deadly weapon, you get 20 years for that shit.

Louis: Listen, do you have any better ideas?

Billy Ray: Yeah. You know, it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.

Coleman: You have to admit, sir, you didn't like it yourself a bit.

More than this, watch this excerpt and repeat after me: It was the Greeks, it was the Greeks :-)

And why would you need this humour? Well with financial armageddon coming to a European country or American Continent, well presently, you are going to need some laughs to get by. I thought I might start a little timer ...

Links
It was the Dukes (Repeat after me: It was the Greeks)
I can see

Who stole my Christmas

2012-01-26T01:30:00.000+01:00

Today I am relaxing. But note I have missed Christmas.

Agata and Marcus don't really celebrate Christmas too much but we feel we do have the right to slow down, drink eat and be merry much like everybody around us.

So what with working 10 hours on Christmas Eve, 4 hours on Christmas Day, 8 on Boxing day I can honestly say that **** has stolen my Christmas. My indignation is basically that in England and in say a traditional International Corporate environment

Early December: Christmas Planning
Mid December: Company Christmas Lunch
A bit Later: Corporate Christmas Party
1 week before: Absences at work due to Afternoon Shopping
Christmas Eve: Disappearing from the Office Early
Christmas Day: No Work, Food, Alcohol, Queens Speech
Boxing Day: Recovering
Until New Year: Take it Easy
New Years Eve: Party
New Years Day: Recovery

Yes I missed out on this great British slowdown tradition. We were robbed.

Show me some Latitude

2012-01-25T00:02:00.000+01:00

Every month or two that nice man Mr Google sends me a message

This is a reminder that you have enabled Google Location History on your GoogleLatitude account

Yes, we know that, and from the bottom of our Technological hearts we thank you so much for Google Latitude

I have already posted a small article on Latitude, how are things 1 year or so later?

Well Latitude is still absolutely brilliant. Since my iPhone is on 24x7 with the Latitude App loaded and also since I gave Google permission to find my position from my gmail login, well Google pretty much always knows exactly where I am at any time.

So what are the consequences now:

Google records my position every day. So I can select this link and I can look back at exactly where I was on any day in the past. It is just absolutely amazing!
Imagine if the UK Government tried to make me pay UK residency taxes. A couple of clicks on Latitude would prove to them that I definitely not living in England
Agata can find exactly where I am at any time
So, for example she can start running from Work to home and I can similarly start running toward her and then link up with her in real time by locating our respective real time locations.
You can share your location with only the people you choose; which is sensible
The Latitude Dashboard is in beta but shows you additional statistics like time spent at your designated home or work locations.

So if you don't trust Google or if you have something to hide then stay away from Latitude else I really recommend it.

Links
Your Position on Google Latitude

Man we missed CES

2012-01-24T00:01:00.000+01:00

The gratifying thing about coming out (ask a Geek I mean) is that you don't have to be a closet Technology advocate.

And so it is with a heavy heart that Agata and Marcus can almost tearfully say that we missed CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2012.

A good place to catchup on what you have missed would be the Hak5 iTunes Podcast feed as shown above

What have we learnt?

CES occurs in January. This is an awkward time for anyone celebrating Christmas and New Year. Assuming you don't have an infinite vacation you might have cut down Christmas to make room for CES. Tough choice.
CES is in Las Vegas. We love Las Vegas!
A truly incredible range of products is on view and for 2013 we think a booking is a must
The lead time between CES and Production, especially European production is at least 6 months.

So you need a lot of patience to wait for any CES must have technology
Although as consultants we normally have a less than 12 month planning horizon (for anything) we feel that CES 2013 is going to be worth an early reservation Jan 8 - Jan 11 2013

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

2012-01-23T01:00:00.000+01:00

In Blogtime it is Monday January 9, 2012.

Today we will be visiting the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. No expense has been spared, it was completed in 2001 (read modern technology and building materials), our expectations are high.

But first we must concentrate on the lavish Chedi a la carte cooked breakfast menu

Driving towards the Mosque

Upon arrival we noted the rules, we note that Women are discriminated against compared to the clothing options for men.

And so the lovely ladies are today a little more covered up than usual.

Next, in several languages , English is shown here, I was treated to a one page summary of Islam.

This is the floor plan. It is truly impressive.

The entrance for non devotees i.e. visitors is far far away

But it was worth it ....

Truly intricate and quite spectacular

Agata waits patiently for the husband

On exit from this splendid mosque we passed by the Islamic Information Centre. Apart from slogans as shown above (don't confuse it with Arbeit mach frei ) we picked up some literature including A brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam and Women in Islam. Here is a random quote from the former:

Page 32: Ever since the Qur'an was revealed, fourteen centuries ago, no one has been able to produce a single chapter like the chapters of the Qur'an in their beauty, eloquence, splendour, wise legislation, true information, true prophecy, and other perfect attributes.

Wow, I never realised that.

Now who said Islam had no positive aspects?

Agata reads "Women in Islam" whilst constructing a makeshift burqa

All the manual workers at the Mosque I saw without exception were Indian. Therefore it was a nice suprise to see one of their trusty tranports, an Atlas bicycle

Time now to head back to the Chedi, a few more Km in that 103 metre pool and pack up for our last night in Oman this time.

Our farewell dinner was at the renowned Indian restaurant Mumtaz Mahal. Nice dinner, but in our live music set, what was the lady in the middle doing. Mystery :-)

And so readers, this is the end of our wonderful Omani holiday. I know what you are all thinking. It is practically a crime to send young Marcus and Agata back to work tomorrow. Well, until we can finally retire it shall be so. Perhaps in 2102?

Links
Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Mumtaz Mahal Restaurant Reviews
Atlas bicycles India
A brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam
Discover Islam

The Chedi Muscat Oman

2012-01-22T00:00:00.000+01:00

It is our sad last morning in Salalah Oman. Today we are looking back to Sunday Jan 8th 2012.

First though it was time to checkout of the Marriot Salalah resort. I would comment that this is a picture looking down on the scale model of the resort in the lobby. This is the full phase II implementation wheras our Phase 1 resort is just the single hotel on the middle left and a few apartments. Phase 1 was has been open for 2.5 years and no sign of Phase 2. Hmmm.

An hour plane ride later we arrived to our fancy hotel for the end of our hotel. The Chedi, Muscat

I especially fell in like with the 103 metre pool and the adjacent and equally spacious Gymnasium. Whilst the Gym classes were not as advertised the Gymnasium was quite state of the art and the showers and changing room top notch.

Agata and I both agreed this is the kind of luxury that we would be happy to be accustomed to.

Last dive Salalah

2012-01-21T00:00:00.000+01:00

This is our blog report from Friday January 7th 2012 Salalah Oman.

Above you see princess Agata preparing for the first our 2 wreck dives.

At last one of the team constructs a burqa. You know the sensible one, white, stylish, with a nice clip at the back and open so you can see all of the face.

The food I had smuggled out of breakfast was a little rich, but the seagulls had no complaints.

One last look at our lovely Spa

Back to the Gym for Marcus

Whilst Agata is checking the sunset by the pool

Agata and Marcus wait for a taxi to take us to Salalah town where we will search out the best fresh fish restaurant in town.

Arrival at the fish market and things are pretty quiet.

Local bicycle technology is robust

We found the local cinema, it is a night of National Geographic projection.

Salalah fort at night

The town fish restaurant mission was aborted so we returned to Mr Marriot where most dined on large portions of locally caught lobster. Delicious.

Massage Day

2012-01-20T00:00:00.000+01:00

The second day of diving in Salalah.

You see us here loading up the dive boat.

Today we had dives at New Entry and Eagle Bay dives sites.

Some colleagues were doing a dive rescue course. Essentially one diver plays unconscious at the surface and it is quite surprising that it takes at least 3 people to manhandle him into the boat where is he then laid out as shown above.

On return to dry land it was time to visit the Frankincense Spa at the Marriot where Agata and Marcus had prebooked an hour long massage each. Delicious!

Post Massage Marcus managed a Gym and then a long swim so all in all it turned out to be a wonderfully exercised filled day.

Refresher Dive

2012-01-19T00:00:00.000+01:00

In Blog land we are still on our Omani holiday. Today is Thursday January 5th 2012 and it our first day of diving. We think it is essential to start with a breakfast

A really large breakfast

All eyes and ears focus to Annemarie who had the foresight to bring the Dive Computer manual. Marcus says it has been such a long time I hardly remember why I need one, yet alone how to operate it.

Hard to say which is more beautiful Agata or the idylic background?

Agata says: Hurry up, I am impatient to get to our first dive site of this holiday :-)

SOPA The Day the LOLcats died

2012-01-18T23:54:00.002+01:00

I'm just saying

http://www.youtube.com/embed/1p-TV4jaCMk

SOPA on WikiPedia

SOPA explanations

Arrival Salalah

2012-01-18T00:15:00.000+01:00

We are still reminiscing about our recent holiday Oman. Today we teleport ourselves back to Tuesday January 4th 2012.

We leave Radison Blue and take an internal flight from Muscat to Salalah airport in the South.

Glen has organised a welcoming committee as shown above. Makes us feel quite special!

This is the main hotel complex in the background.

Our room card had a bizarre logo on it "Walk in like you own the place", a phrase that could be considered mildly insulting in England. Lost in translation I guess.

Marcus insisted on spending a long time trying to get our 3G Internet connection working. Agata patient as ever waited for my obsession to pass (no 3G despite a cell tower being visible in the distance!) and we eventually moved into our apartment.

We stayed in one of the chalets away from the main complex.

View from the roof of our apartment complex (click to enlarge)

We are literally just next to both the Dive Center and also the Spa Complex. What a location!

Next stop to the pool, and it is almost 40 metres in length. Wahoo!

Nizwan Fort

2012-01-17T00:09:00.000+01:00

Today I'm recounting the events of Tuesday January 03, 2012.

The team is philosophising on a dune, whilst I prepare for a solo 10Km desert run.

Marcus made a reference point to run back to. Agata pointed out this was pathetic so she gave me her Garmin 405 GPS watch so that I can do a navigable 10Km run without stress

Many memorable sights

When I return Agata suggests another run!

Our support team is off practicising desert driving we agree a rendezvous point

We are practising running over the dunes

Difficult running in the sand!

So now you want me to drive when it's just a boring blacktop road?

Arrival at Nizwa Fort

First stop, time for tea

To the Museum

Something that should belong to Ancient History

I like to one on the left

Guard Kitty

250Km of driving later we are back in Muscat

In Search of Wadi

2012-01-16T00:17:00.000+01:00

The Oman holiday report continues. Today from Monday January 02, 2012.

As dawn breaks you find us making a large European style breakfast in the desert south west of Muscat.

A few sticky (stuck) situations later we are back to the untarmaced sandy road. Group photo of the survivors above.

Today we split from our hosts, and with our Desert driving credential established (good but still beginners) we decide to spend today in search for the Wadi.

The Wadi is a dried riverbed and is usually drivable.

Cyclists, wow! Seen again, spooky!

A few wrong turns later we find a Wadi Sign

With a car park full of expensive 4WD's we expect to find some swimming so we take a beach towel

Arrival at Mukal Water Pools

The benefits of cooling down and freshening up in cool clean water are not to be underestimated.

We find a private place to camp 9Km away from the 1000 Nights Camp

Don't come between a man and his shovel in the desert

The bedroom is constructed

An unfeasibly large amount of food and drink for just 1 night!

Time to contemplate life before sundown

New Year 2012

2012-01-15T00:01:00.000+01:00

We jump back to the events of Sunday January 1 2012. Our Oman vacation continues. Time to leave Secret Turtle Beach

Some of us found it quite difficult to get up

Ah, we generated a lot of trash, but we can say that we are bagging it to take away to keep the local environment clean

I am a kid and so my duties are confined to sleeping in and looking cute

Time to ascend. It is a lot steeper than it looks.

Next, New Year's Day Desert driving & camping.

Some hours later ...

Are you telling me the Men have got us stuck already?

Agata deflates our tyres down to 15 psi for better sand traction

Rob makes it to our Sand Dune based campsite without problem. A thank you prayer to the god of sand driving follows.

Willie: Yes, and this is what happens when you stop on the crest of a dune you Muppet!

The situation worsens. Our rescue car is now also stuck

Really Stuck

Time for some hot sand digging action

Agata and Marcus pause for a photograph

Hours later; all cars make it and our tent is erected.

The kitchen bridgehead is established

Flying Chinese Lanterns are excellent children pacifiers

Secret Turtle Beach

2012-01-14T01:00:00.000+01:00

In Blog-Land we are now upto New Years eve 2011 as we embark on a trip to the Desert

At Willie's house we are packing all things necessary for a New Year Desert adventure including Wine and the Kitchen Sink.

As loyal supporters of PDO (Petroleum Development Oman) we are able to manage a smile at the local Shell Petrol station.

The local Gas fuelled power station in the background

Simon an experienced off roader on his way to secret Turtle beach.

Glenn and Agata descending confidently. It's really steeper than it looks, I can't even run down it quickly.

Two of our beautiful beach babes

Marcus is off for a sandy beach then mountainous run. Raidlight Gaters I thank you

A 10Km round trip late I am back to the beach

On my return Agata tells me she's ready to run. So off again.

Rocks are light, sharp and I think Volcanic. Excellent traction for running!

Kids reported Turtles were spotted. I only saw crabs :-(

The "others" are spotted on our beach! A group of Italian tourists have landed.

Glenn and Annemarie have opted for the au natural sleeping under the stars routine.

Marcus and Agata opted to bring their ultra light Lunar Duo tent from Switzerland

The New Year of 2012 has arrived

Gentlemen retire to the smoking room

Annemarie graciously welcomes in the year of 2012

Walking Around Muscat

2012-01-13T05:00:00.000+01:00

In this blog entry I jump back to the events of Friday December 30 2011. Our first full day in Muscat and a chance to see some sights and get some provisions for our desert foray.

Muscat is on the coast and the Sultan of Oman maintains a number of vessels. His is the large white one in the background

Meanwhile we zoom in to see a traditional fishing vessel. The Sultan has kindly provided boats and equipment subsidies but it is rumoured that this has lead to overfishing in some areas.

The temperature at noon is about 29 degrees Centigrade. Actually low in comparison to the summer temp which can reach 50 degrees. Marcus with his sun allergy is okay with the temperature but not the sunshine.

Walking back on the quayside we observe an impromptu game of Cricket. Oman has a gross population of 2.7 million and of that 600,000 are foreigners. This is ex-pats and then several hundred thousand Indian workers employed mostly in construction. The Indians have brought cricket with them :-)

Oman has reasonable oil reserves and this provides for the Sultan's wealth which is generously distributed by the Sultan. Low oil prices do translate to an abundance of large engined cars, classic Mustang 5.0 shown above.

Arrival at Al Alam Palace of the Sultan. The last section is behind a large locked gate

This Gate

The adjoining square is large enough for Marcus to dance in

Click to enlarge :-)

Women in cloth bags are spotted on the horizon. A topic I shall return to.

Arrival at the Al Bustan Palace

What wine should we choose darling?

The view from our lunchtime terrace is livable

Arrival at the Mutrah market

A great place to buy that next pair of sandals

Marcus manages to find a Swiss Shop

Lots of jewellery for sale

I am quite interested in purchasing a Burqa. I convince Agata and Annemarie to enter a shop as cover. The Burqa would be for me :-) I could wear it to show solidarity and also combat that sunshine against my allergic skin. After consultation we think my wearing it might be dangerous to my health so the plan is canned ... for now.

Being On Holiday

2012-01-12T22:28:00.001+01:00

Today we are revisiting Thursday December 29th 2011. The first day of our Oman Holiday.

Actually this day almost nothing happened which is a perfectly allowable response for a holiday.

In fact, the greatest non event was that Marcus had actually entering Oman since technically had Border control been very picky they could have refused me entry based on my valid but soon to expire passport.

But instead they took the money, I smiled graciously and my heart rate went back down to 40 bpm.

Meanwhile Glenn had been patiently waiting for us to arrive and the checkin staff breathed a sigh or relief that Mr Glenn could not be informed (he had been checking with them all night!)

The Radison Blu, Muscat is a conventional Westernised hotel but the Grind Floor brought a smile to our faces

At least they do sell Alcohol, which is not available in any local shop to either Omani's or tourists so a visit to the bar with Uncle Glenn was in order.

Agata recounted her recent meeting with the Bahrain Santa

Marcus recounted his Polar Bear story

The end of our first day. Tomorrow the Desert beckons.

Preparing for Oman

2012-01-11T19:38:00.000+01:00

Our latest holiday mission, namely our visit to Oman which is now sucessfully completed will be the subject of our Blog for the forthcoming days.

The action actually began a few days before our flight of Wednesday December 28th on Boxing Day when Agata told me:

Marcus, I think we might have a problem

Turns out that visiting Oman for a British Passport Holder (Marcus) requires a Visa and that this can be bought on arrival in Oman for about 40 CHF (USD).

However, although the Tourist Visa is valid for 14 days your passport should have a passport expiring at least 6 months in the future & Marcus's was 5 months and 2 days.

Here are 5 things that did not work (over the Christmas / New Year; holiday season)

Arrange a Premium 1 day service London Passport Meeting and Replacement
Arrange a new UK Passport via Geneva Embassy - UK Passports are now handled by Paris & both embassies closed over Christmas
Calling the Oman Embassy in London
Calling the Royal Oman Police who administer Visas

We did extensively email and talk to the Oman Embassy in Geneva who said that if we could somehow arrive in Oman then they saw no reason why a Visa would not be granted.

So let's rewind to Wednesday December 28th:

And 25 hours later:

What did we learn?

- Priority Pass Lounge Bahrain charged us twice (per person) since we stayed more than 3 hours
- UBS credit card insurance allows only for delays on 1st flight. So our >8 hours subsequent delays don't count
- Bahrain passport control, any slower and they'd be moving backwards
- Don't attempt to navigate the Muscat road system without a current GPS (massive road construction

Links
Oman Embassy in the UK
Oman Visa department in Switzerland +41 22 758 9670
Oman Online Visa Application Form
British Embassy in Oman
Renewing a British Passport
Urgent UK Passport Renewal

Sorry Honda

2012-01-10T20:27:00.001+01:00

As a previous Honda NSX owner I could be claimed to be a little biased. However things hit an all time low this evening when I read in Jalopnik that the new Honda NSX ....

It'll be designed in the United States, built in Ohio, and go on sale within three years.

3 very good reasons not to consider buying it then

This is the 2nd generation Honda NSX car that I saw at Geneva Palexpo some years ago. Production ready it was cancelled by Honda. Utter nonsense.

Down Beats

2012-01-09T21:00:00.000+01:00

Warning: This posting contains extreme profanity & bad taste. not of my making of course.

Besides the clear issues that many have with the sense, sensibility or even musicality of Rap music, many of us just can't understand the Lyrics at all. Traditionally the answer is to wait for a Caucasian remake. I can cite the Ben Folds Bitches Ain't Shit as an exemplar.

But apparently there is another way. You can pay over the odds for some Beats headphones

Allegedly at least one of these comments is correct

Dr Dre has not produced an album in years. He needs the considerable revenue stream from Beats to support a traditionally lavish Rapstar lifestyle
The Beats brands was initially a joke concept but after high powered marketing it was too late to pull out. It was described to me as a triumph of marketing over performance.
I have Beats Audio in my HP Envy 17 laptop. The sound quality is very disappointing.
For wannabe Chavs they are really standard issue

But hold the front page, now some competition is coming to town:

50 cent (i.e. Curtis James Jackson) is now setting up a rival Expensive Rapstar Headphone sales outlet. So soon it will be even easier to decode any Misogynistic or Profanity based lyrics.

Personally I think the discrete Sony MDR-XB21EX or equivalent in ear Earbuds take some beating.

Can fit in your pocket
Clearly not advertising that you are listening to an Apple device worth stealing
Less than 40 USD i.e. fair value for money
Not likely to fall off if or look ridiculous if you use them whilst running
Sit so deep in your ear they can act as earplugs with your music source off!

Links
Bitches Ain't Shit cover by Ben Folds
An Afternoon with 50 cent
Beats by DrDre
50 Cent Headphones
Sleek Audio Platinum headphones with 50 cent (Engadget)
Sony MDR-XB21EX Earbuds

Now that is a Pool

2012-01-08T16:00:00.000+01:00

The search for the perfect Swimming Pool is surely all that is holding Agata and Marcus from becoming world class swimmers :-)

For the past 4 days we have experienced a 40 metre pool for our swim training. But from last night we now have access to a 103 metre pool. I'll just say that again, 103 metres. I think that will suit us just fine :-)

Night of the Mosquitoes

2012-01-07T04:38:00.000+01:00

I have awoken at 06.20 this morning after less than 5 hours sleep. It is all the fault of the mosquito.

Some say say every living creature has a right to life but I would overrule this generic philosophic principle for creatures like the mosquito.

With Global Warming now in full swing Mosquitoes are a common occurrence in Lausanne Switzerland even at the elevation of over 500 metres where we live and even out of the summer season. It it outrageous!

What did I learn?

> One person dies per minute as a result of Malaria infection from Mosquitoes
For me Mosquitoes love to fly around our bedroom and bite me
Marcus is cursed with "sweet blood", this means in a room I am a preferred target compared to other humans
If I am lucky it is possible to hear the high pitched buzzing, locate the creature against a white surfaced wall, then squash the creature which is so cocky that it never makes any attempt to fly off.

Mosquito assasination takes anything from 10 minutes to 1 hour per mosquito. It is a great way to make for a tired next day at work
I can buy an electronic gadget that simulates the sound of a male mosquito and this is supposed to scare away the pregnant female mosquito who is reported to do the biting.

The traditional smelly smouldering coil of smoking chemicals is what I remember from a past life, lasts for several hours.
If you watch the TED talk you can hope that one far day in the distant future a commercially available and cost effective laser mosquito killer can be produced.

Yes mosquitoes, let us keep a few specimens in a lab for posterity but like Smallpox that is the only place I'd still like you to exist in.

Links
TED: Kill Mosquitoes using a laser
World Health Organisation Malaria

Acceptable in the 80's

2012-01-06T03:03:00.000+01:00

I have recently passed into a country where the above title has echoed thru my mind. Of course I emplore you to listen to the excellent Calvin Harris track but I would ask you to consider the title in the context of changing times, standards and principally data speeds

With our daily digital lifestyle in mind I tried to calculate how much daily data I might consume daily in this 2012 world

Podcasts (including Daily World Service Audio News and Occaisional Video Feed) 300MB
BBC iPlayer downloads 50MB
Googling and RSS News Feeds reading 100MB
Media Download e.g Youtube: 0-500MB

I think I need a pipe that can supply at least 1 G Byte per day to keep me healthy.

So how did it go today? <Names and locations have been witheld to protect the innocent>

I bought a 3G data SIM with 6GBytes of data subscription so that whilst out and about I would have mobile data via an iPhone assuming a 3G connection.

The Apple iPhone (or Android) enables you to take your 3G Internet connection which can be at least 1Mbps and share this via a wifi bubble it can generate to your personal laptop or iPad tablet.
Although I am within sight of the 3G cell tower there is no signal!
I paid the hotel a modest price for 24 hour wired Internet connection.
The Internet connection was not free (outrageous) and there was no wireless (strike 2) only wired Ethernet.
Worse, having spoken techy to support turns out that they share a single 1Mbps wired connection for all 200+ guests. This leads to truly 1980's modem class operating speeds.
VPN is allowed (and I can tunnel Skype inside it) which is lucky because it is banned by the whole country's king as socially unacceptable
Even Google Gmail is not able to add an attachment unless it is behind my VPN connection

Overall not a good digital day for me, I suppose it reminds me that whilst my home Internet connection is not the fastest it is a lot better than some.

Links
Calvin Harris
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=dOV5WXISM24&ob=av3n&resolution=high

7 Day countdown

2012-01-05T03:02:00.001+01:00

It has been both a busy and digitally disconnected few days. I think I am almost at the BBC iPlayer 7 day limit for BBC Christmas Specials.

This is the sort of thing that I mean. So get downloading, your time has nearly expired, else you will miss out on all that Christmas and New Year BBC audio and visual goodness that you foolishly missed out as it "just happened"

My MAC Address

2012-01-04T00:01:00.000+01:00

Agata and Marcus recently had the pleasure of passing thru Schipol Airport in Holland.

Less pleasurable was our visit to the Menzies Business Lounge which we are entitled to use based on our Priority Pass card membership.

It turns out, that Menzies don't offer any WiFi service but ask clients to use the free KPN service. However on a single day the KPN service allows you 2x30 minute periods and after that you have to pay.

30 minutes for 6 euros, are you kidding me?

So we thought of a better way ...

How does the networking gateway determine who I am. Chances are it uses the MAC (Media Access Control) address.

Apple fanboys will be dismayed to hear that MAC address has nothing to do with Apple MACs

As every schoolboy knows the current MAC address is a 6 byte quantity shown in bold here

$ ifconfig en0

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 28:37:37:ef:cd:ab
inet6 fe80::2a37:37ff:fe19:f071%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
inet 192.168.1.237 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
media: autoselect
status: active

So to convince the network gateway that you are a new system connecting

Keep your WiFi switched on but disconnect from the KPN network
This might mean for example, just connecting to another network temporarily
Start up Application,Utilities, Terminal.app from Finder
command line: sudo ifconfig en0 to determine the current MAC address
increment the address by 1 digit
So above example becomes 28:37:37:ef:cd:ac
update it really
sudo ifconfig en0 ether 28:37:37:ef:cd:ac
reconnect to the KPN network
KPN recognises you as a new system and gives you again 2 x 30 minutes free (and very slow) WiFi

Saving Weight

2012-01-03T01:00:00.000+01:00

I hear that BMW recently announced a special version of their rather successful M3 called the CRT ... Carbon Racing Technology

Here is the Press Release

The car saves 45Kg of weight over a standard car and the difference is given to be 70Kg less than a regularly equipped and higher specd M3.

So I was thinking what currently produced lightweight cars are kicking around. What came to mind was

BMW M3 CRT Press Release (-70Kg)
Porsche Cayman R ( -55Kg )
Nissan GT-R Track Pack (-18Kg)
Porsche 911 GT3 RS (-25Kg)

I guess what came to mind was

The cars are already expensive
Usually they leave items (like air conditioning or a radio) out to save weight, yes decide to charge you much more for your lower feature car :-(
The weight savings are so moderate that it's the difference at best between driving solo and carrying a slim and not overweight passenger.

The best way then to experience the benefits of a crisp handling light weight sports car is to buy one that started off light by design. Caterham or McLaren anyone?

USB3 vs Thunderbolt again

2012-01-02T01:00:00.000+01:00

If you speak to anybody but a hardened Apple fanboy [fangirl] the advantages of USB 3.0 as a peripheral interface are pretty clear

SPEED!

And now this targus dock (now shipping) contains features like

DVI and HDMI vido ports with upto 2048x1152 pixels
Gigabit ethernet
4 x USB 2.0 ports
2 x USB 3.0 ports

In assoiciated news Intel is now prouncing its Z77 H77 and Q77 chipsets will for the first time include USB 3.0 native support.

Meanwhile Intel's Lightpeak interface (now renamed Thunderbolt because Apple told them so) may become available on non Apple hardware. Of course not yet freely available Thunderbolt design guide is available yet - thanks Intel.

So what is the current state of play?

USB 3.0 has no native Intel Chipset support today (quite disgraceful really Intel)
Intel promises USB 3.0 native support with *77 Panther Peak chipsets debuting 2012
Intel also hints at Thunderbolt availability in the PC realm
Today most Apple computers are equipped with a [copper] Thunderbolt interface
But the Apple Thunderbolt interface is 99.9% unusable for anything, except perhaps a Lacie external disk.
USB 3.0 docks and external peripherals (especially disks) are now commonplace. USB 3 interfaces are commonplace on practically every new PC design and on unavailable on any Apple platform

Links
Targus ACP70US USB3 dock
Highpoint USB 3.0 cards

Where on Earth

2012-01-01T01:15:00.000+01:00

For this New Years day we can confidently say that we are safe yet unwired.

No internet, no mobile phone just good friends and a strong belief that 2012 will be memorable for marcus and agata and we think in a positive way.

Reasons Greetings

2011-12-31T00:01:00.000+01:00

In these Seasonal times let us learn to live, learn, postulate and most importanly smile

the end && Happy New Year to all :-)

Software Terrorists

2011-12-30T01:04:00.000+01:00

In the same way that any airport flight bag scan, search, prodding, shoes off general humiliation reminds me that I will never forgive terrorists, I can also never forgive any Software Virus writer.

As a consequence my anti Virus software has to well, read every byte of every hard disk file or network stream and pattern match it against a set of tens of thousands of potential threats.

No wonder some Apple computers seems to be running faster. The discriminatory targeting of Windows computers mandates the use of increasingly heavy and time consuming prevention routines.

But even I was shocked when I by accident started using Windows Resource monitor

I have noticed for periods of over 2 hours after startup on a >20CPU server is via the avgchsva.exe process reading file after file.

Here is the explanation:

AVG is presumably attempting to hash tag every file on my system.

No wonder I have had 2 x SSD disks fail recently, AVG is reading the disks to death!

But let me repeat the blame and animosity are firmly targeted at virus writers. You are indeed trash and I do not wish you well.

Welcome Acer Revo 3700

2011-12-29T19:53:00.000+01:00

Postponing any of our computers entry to Silicon Heaven is something Agata and Marcus take pride in.

Our technology is used and then reused.

And so it is that the Acer Revo 3700 computer that Agata has used for a year as her sole desktop computer has been retasked.

Her new role is as a personal work workstation. It says a lot about technology that this 200 GBP computer is powerful enough to perform this task: browsing the web, downloading GigaBytes of AIX code and fixes, running Lotus Notes and Sametime, and even UNIX activities via cygwin

The Acer Revo is quite literally tiny! Less than the size of the smallest keyboard and about 2cms thick

There is a decent BIOS with lots of settings to twiddle

The 128 GB Crucial C300 SSD is installed

4GB of memory is now installed - the maximum for the Atom processor

As a home media workstation initially I tried using Ubuntu

Later when the workstation was handed to Agata, Windows 7 was installed. Her Sports programs e.g. iTunes / Runkeeper, Garmin Training Center run better there, plus the touch screen software to her Dell ST2320 touch screen required Windows 7.

Since Agata now has a brand new shiny silver unibody Windows computer (details to follow) it was time to recycle

Here then is the final workstation reinvented for Corporate Use.

My main employer allows users to use their own computer equipment so long as you comply with a challenging list. What did I learn that I need?

Poweron Password
Hard Disk Password
Workstation must be locked to desk
Desktop Screensaver set to 30 minutes or less and require a windows password to unlock
My AVG virus scanner is not allowed, I must install Symantec Anti Virus the settings of which I cannot view, change or maintain
You must run Symantec Firewall control software
You many not use or have installed any Peer to Peer software utilities
All Windows shares need authentication access
Any locally stored Lotus Notes Database ust be Encrytped
Via secpol.msc you must configure Windows Accounts to have >7 characters, max password age 90 days, min password age 1 day, password history >7
Window latest service pack must be installed

All of this I pretty much approve of . However I still fail the final test ...

Because my Hard Disk is not encrypted. I can't use Bitlocker because this requires TPM hardware which I don't have. I can't use the preferred PGP desktop since it's certified for 32bit Windows only.

I am awaiting an explanation.

Fat for Christmas

2011-12-28T02:00:00.000+01:00

I listened to the latest episode of the BBC World Service Business daily with a mixture of fascination and horror. Mostly the latter.

The episode is called: The Business of Fat

Click on the link to listen. It is worth 18 minutes of your time.

The overall angle is that it is perfectly okay for people to exercise less and become fatter and even obese.

And the consequence is that they will need larger cars, larger furniture, larger clothing and even larger toilet seats.

I suppose I should pinpoint my distaste. Larger is fine. A large, fit, not fat, not obese person can live a good life.

But as obesity sets in, you are likely to die early, likely to be a significant burden on the state, to be a concern to friends or family due to health problems, and consume a less fair proportion of goods and services compared to others.

Of course self criticism is where it all starts. And the above graph shows that shortly after my Triathlon accident I had to stop exercising and gained at least 5Kg. Since then I have tried very hard but I am still at least 3Kg over desired work.

Must try harder. How about you out there?

USB Portable Disk Drives

2011-12-27T02:00:00.000+01:00

Agata rightly made me follow through and sell or gift away my extensive collection of 2.5 inch form factor, IDE disk drives.

I think I sold my last 4 drives including a quick insertion case and cables for 20 CHF. Now that was a bargain.

Right now I have had an urgent need to restock .... 2 SSD 2.5" drive failures in less than 1 month. To name and shame:

Crucial C300 64GB && Crucial M4 256 GB with time delayed failure (fail after < 1 hour after power on)

I never had any trouble in over 10 years with rotating 2.5" drives so it was time for a reorder. Here are the results ....

A survey narrowed in Samsung S2 and M2, 1TB drives in sealed external cases

The HD Tune Information is shown above
You can clearly see the speed advantages of USB3.0
I'm going to keep the M2
The S2 is going to be dismantled so I can use the bare drive in an existing server. It is actually cheaper to buy this cased model than the bare drive. Unbelievable!

Links

Samsung S2 USB2 connected drive

Samsung M2 USB3 connected drive

Even More Pixels

2011-12-26T02:50:00.000+01:00

I am not a great favour of mediocrity so putting up with either one of my 2 Corporate Laptops takes some doing.

The insane Swiss Keyboard I have already commented on. This is easily fixable by simply plugging in an Excellent compact Microsoft Arc Keyboard.

Next is the Screen. A meagre 14 inc screen and a pathetic 1366x768 pixel resolution is next on the upgrade list.

Whilst it really pains me to spend my money on upgrading this Corporate Laptop the factors are

I asked nicely and the Corporate told me to get lost
The cost of a Samsung S24A300B Full HD 1920 x 1080 screen is 169 CHF from Digitec
So for most people this is less than a days work
For this smallish outlay then I'll have a workable screen that should last some years

OKay, I am sold. I bought the screen

So to come to the title of this post. How many screen pixels are sitting on my desk these days. Yes 15.08 Million Pixels. Enough for today. In 2011.

Christmas 2011 All is Well

2011-12-25T20:13:00.000+01:00

Well the title refers to how nicely Marcus and Agata are settling into Christmas. We didn't precisely calculate but probably for the last decade we've made the effort to visit friends/family for Crimbo.

This year. We are resting at home thank you :-)

More precisely:

The Swiss Carac (Green icing on top of a pastry cake full of chocolate paste) consumption is rising

Rashida's soiree was an excellent lead in to Christmas and Haruki kept me entertained

Marcus was busy building another yet faster computer in the Study. In the last 2 days it's taken over 15 hours. Most of the complications to do with the incompatibility of the AT&T Network Client with x64 Windows 7

Time for a decent Christmas Run. Still carrying a rucksack but lighter without water and office clothes I managed a faster run than usual.

Back home and of course I had to watch the Queens Speech. I think this is obligatory for all British abroad.

Now although I have a work deadline of Tuesday December 27 I think I can start on that 07.00 December 26 not that the infrastructure is prepared. Now it is at last time to relax with Agata and The Girl who kicked the Hornets Nest. Exciting I can tell you

Christmas Eve Euphoria

2011-12-24T00:20:00.000+01:00

In theoretically Christrian countries we have reached Christmas Eve, a day where most people can manage a smile and I could begin to quote Luke 2:14

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men

Ignoring the fact this is a quote from a Christian bible a belief in any God could render the above phrase true, and with some selective editing

~~on earth peace, good will toward men~~

on earth peace, good will toward all sentient beings

is a phrase that even those who don't believe in Imaginary Friends can agree to.

Now we have the phrase corrected I have a 3 step plan to get everybody into a Euphoric mood

1. Check out the informative Graphics Below

What a Wonderful World

My time is now

Singing Christmas Hedgehogs

2. Listen to the Disc Fries Liftoff mixtape (or it's too hardcore pick an Avicii Levels Remix, say this one )

2.b.Optional, but recommended: Imbibe a Glass of Wine or Pint of Beer

2.c.Optional. For UK residents, watch How Not To Live Your Life. Christmas Special

3. You are now tasked with going outside and shaking hands, smiling and wishing

seasons greetings || on earth peace, good will towards all sentient beings

to 20 people you have never met before.

Links
Attenborough - Wonderful World
Disco Fries:Liftoff

1010 Aural Delights

2011-12-23T01:43:00.001+01:00

Ah music. Or perhaps Aural stimulation. Here are my 1010 notables for this year of our Lord 2011.

0001 The Cure:Bestival Live 2011

0010 Mike Posner:The Layover

0011 Ayan Rand: When Atlas Shrugged
In the real world, I rather fear that there is no magic motor to save us.

0100 Coverville
The 2011 Coverville countdown has began. But Brian Ibbot's podcast is always informative and just so cool.

0101 BBC Essential Mix

0110 Beardyman
(Ideally a friend would give you the full hour plus BBC Essential Mix Beardyman session?)

0111 SoundCloud
I show you here The Disco Fries:Lift Off excellent mix tape. But Soundcloud is an incredible free resource.

1000 John Mayer
His latest works like Battle Studies back to his earlier Continuum and before, such talent.

1001 GroovElectric
DJ SteveBoy, runners, athletes and sportsman worldwide salute you. My free weekly dance music mix. Incredible.

1010 Kermode and Mayo
Almost an hour of Wittertainment. I literally can't wait for each weeks instalment

There is my random selection for 2011, thanks for reading and listening

10 NOT presents for Christmas

2011-12-22T00:01:00.000+01:00

It is another small test of faith but if I receive any of the following Christmas presents I can further conclude that friends and relations have a cruel sense of humour.

01 Any Euro currency
Well the full list is No Euros, No Dollars, No GB Pounds .. please. If you want a buyer try the Swiss National Bank. They have publicly committed to buy unlimited quantities of them at ridiculously bad (for Swiss) exchange rates.

02 The Steve Jobs Book
For over 20 years there has been an Apple computer (or two) in the basement and study. Just in case. And, as such I have given Apple and Uncle Steve a shed load of money. I know all about Apple's restrictive practises first hand so I don't need Walter to tell it to tell it to me all over again.

03 Any Paper Book
On the subject of books. I don't have the time to read the novels that I have seen fit to buy. The last thing I need is your set of coffee table suggestions. In general I'd prefer a digital Paper or Audio download if you really have to.

04 A Christmas Music Rehash

A Christmas rehash musical album on any physical media which contains typically 1 or 0 new tracks. Particularly sad are from artists that peaked several decades ago. Today we have the technology to digitise our music and store it. We can make our own digital compilation albums thank you!

06 A Swiss Keyboard
I had to import my personal American format keyboard from the USA because my various homegrown keyboards here are doing my head in. In order to accommodate the base French and German characters useful keys for programmers like the hash # key, or for anybody using something called the Internet (at @ key) are not available without using the ALT or ALT-Graphics key. Use a Swiss Keyboard for more than 30 minutes and I need a Nurofen to calm me down.

07 Makeup Set (Agata)
Let's face it, what a complete waste of time! If you are ugly then a Makeup set might be a necessity. If you want to try and hide the ravages of time, ditto. If you enjoy further diminishing your free time by plastering your face in the morning and unplastering it the evening, again try a Makeup Set. If you enjoy trying to attract or flirt with your coworkers, again perhaps a Makeup Set. Luckily Agata has great natural presence and I'd like to see the real deal not a masked malady.

08 Magnetic Bracelet
A chain bracelet will improve your cycling as much as a magnetic / Ion Bracelet will improve your health. Send me one of the latter and observe my Blood pressure rise, my Anger and Stress level explode. What a load of Placebo.

09 Pocket Diary
Since before the year 2000 I've kept a digital diary. On the Psion 5MX at first and then to a variety of digital devices. My digital diary can be backed up & edited without wasting paper, transferred and merged with other diaries such as the Office diary, shared and viewed by my friends/relations as required. It can store text, pictures, even large diagrams and video media. Please no paper diaries.

0A Office Swag
Corporate Christmas presents. On reflection I am not a fan. What you get with few exceptions are garish advertising and mediocre quality. Give me an Ultrastar SSD400S 400GB drive I can discretely use in my laptop to increase my productivity - yes. Give me a big logo Ballpoint pen or a shouting Lanyard - I say no!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2011-12-21T00:22:00.000+01:00

On Sunday whilst running in the snow for what felt like hours I had the pleasure of listening to the very entertaining Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode's Film Reviews Podcast

It included an interview with Daniel Craig of the forthcoming remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I say remake but for me it's really more of a cover

Though Daniel Craig said he did not see the original Swedish film, well this is by definition a rehash/ cover
The Swedish original was available with English Subtitles
The film #2 The Girl who played with fire is in English
The film #3 The Girl who kicked the Hornets nest is in English

So my view is, stick with the original films. You can watch all three films now and not have to wait for the sequel remakes. I watched all three originals in 2010. My heart raced just viewing the trailers again! The original actors are mighty fine, no improvement is necessary.

I have Lisbeth to thank for my twitter ID .... anbncn

Links
I said the Steig not the Stig
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 2009 Swedish
The Girl who played with Fire trailer - 2009
The Girl who kicked the Hornets nest - 2010

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 2011 Cover

Marcus's Christmas List

2011-12-20T01:23:00.000+01:00

I a quite sure if I believed in any one of the popular imaginary friends especially at this seasonal time of year I would hoping that Christmas day December 25th 2011 would herald in the end of Hunger &famine, and usher in peace on Earth and goodwill to all humankind.

Meanwhile, back in the real world I have been drafting up a preferred Christmas present list. I can imagine darling Agata reading this and having to make some hurried telephone calls. In no specific order then:

12 x IKEA Blue Bags
Since they cost about 1 Franc each and get almost daily service it would be nice to have a fresh bag each month of 2012.

A butler
Agata and Marcus are quite busy. Our parents generation were used to such luxuries and being as we are a terribly soft touch our Butler would probably have the most wonderfuly easy time taking care of us.

Hitachi GST Deskstar 4TB disk 5K4000 HDS5C4040ALE630
To fully upgrade I need about quantity 30. Come on Santa!

Engine Table
Engineering friends take note. You could make one for me and entertain yourself at the same time.

Car Seat
Something from Racehairs but needs to be comfortable!

Micky Flanagan Live on DVD
The live act is a little blue but as an ex Eastender I feel at home listening to you Micky.

A coupon for a weeks unlimited Aldi Shopping
Aldi is a bargain retailer but certain products like their Fruit Juices, Semolina, Salami, Brussel Sprouts and Cold Meats just hit the spot. Sometimes the cut price retailer can deliver the basics brilliantly.

An Android Test Phone
Something modest running Android >= 3 so that I can test out the Android Phone experience. Stil waiting for a ChinaVision bargain

A kitty
First and foremost a kitten. One small catch, we also need a new apartment with a large Garden for kitty to roam in. So in essence a cat and a house please (with room for the Butler .. see above).

And that as they say is that.

Leaving the Office Dear

2011-12-19T02:39:00.000+01:00

AGATA's headphones

"Here are my backup headphones husband" Agata proudly said the other day. I was surprised then proud to hear that she had removed them (as well as other personal possessions) since she is now formally a lady of leisure :-)

I was then doubly proud to realise that like me she had backup headphones in the office in case of arriving without them and the prospect a full day in a noisy office without any relief!

This got me to thinking how do people leave the corporate or any kind of work place? At least one name has been changed to protect the innocent <or guilty>

Stealth Exit
I do approve. This is where you steadily take items out one by one, until by the end of your notice period or contract you simply slip away. Where is that beautiful coworker who used to sit next to you I can imagine is the conversation the week after you left. Yes, a great loss everyone will say, Grazyna always did a professional job. And so understated, just like the way she left.

Take it With Me
The now standard currency of theft whilst leaving has moved from the pencil to the corporate laptop. At worst you can reformat that old and overprotective Operating System and give that practically obsolete lump to your kids to play with. Unfortunately it is also criminal theft so I don't recommend it. So it was with some amusement that days after I showed a new starter to his desk and got him a laptop and a phone I received a call from his previous manager. Can Jim please bring back his Corporate Laptop that he accidentally has taken with him? No really, I am serious.

Agent Provocateur
Greg was gently encourage to take early retirement but left us with a present. As unofficial and unpaid infrastructure manager I determined to ease up the cabinet shortage by force opening all the unknown cupboards. After putting notices on all cupboards and waiting 2 weeks I brought along an official I*M security guard to watch me open cupboards to determine owners. Yes, Greg had left 2 huge cupboards full of AS/400 manuals. They had survived for 2 years without raising an alarm. I called Greg at home who was most amused to hear that at last someone spotted his jape.

Public Leak
Imagine you find that your overbearing boss is secretly using Corporate Server storage for his private purposes including questionable photographs or dubious personal tax returns. Why it would be a public service to accidentally publish items to Wikileaks and then send a helpful letter to the local Tax office and HR department of your previous company. You know it makes sense.

You Bastards ...

Mischief Mail
Imagine the annoyance you had with all that Corporate email you received and the almost purposefully annoyingly small mailbox that would fill up unless you deleted all that incoming crap. So on your polite exit Mark accidentally setup a UNIX server to use sendmail to send out random quantities of email, of course purporting to come from his managers email address. A timed at job deleted the mischief 2 weeks after he left thus erasing all traces.

Undocumented Exit
Ah the contractors favourite. In the worst case the highly paid contractor lasts about a year i.e. to the end of his longish contract with the company. In that time Ray taken excessive lunch breaks, contrived any number of reasons not to do any actual work and left no documentation about any work he might have achieved. Ray took the attitude that they should have asked for documentation, indeed it was actually a failure on their part to not ensure he created any. In fact Ray was actually doing them a favour by exposing a weakness in their system.

Ultra Clean Exit
You leave in a Professional and dignified manner. But because you know that people sometimes (and illegally) snoop into personal data items you make best efforts to

Low level format any laptop and erase and SIMcard you have been given
Remove all server Mailserver data including Archives
Remove any documents stored in a Data Management System (or at least set their expiration date to 1 week)

And this leads me onto some other seen befores including Corporate bombs such as:

UNIX at job: A UNIX at job is scheduled to perform mischief / destruction at a time in the future
Incomplete Backup: One or more critical servers have their Database or Operating System backup sets changed so that not everything is quite there. Unless a regular Database restore is attempted this is not spotted until disaster strikes.
Delayed Database Disaster:Modern Large Databases cannot easily be checked for consistency. Often it needs to be offline, so once corrupt time can pass until bad data is accessed and checksums fail. So any surgical insertion into a Dastbase will likely have a future fail scenario, when you will be long gone.
Phone Hack: You hack into the Office telephony system and: Well anything from analysing call records for abuse and reporting it to HR, to reprogramming the phone system to do something very horrible at a future date
Password Scramble: Most Server computers / Network devices may have low level Firmware or Machine start / operating passwords which remain at default. They can be changed to random passwords for delayed havoc.
Shutdown delete: The shutdown command can be modified to delete critical files so that a reboot does not work. Combine with Incomplete Backup (as above) for ultimate destruction.
Virus PC: Your Corporate PC can be left with a little present that will distribute itself within the Corporation if your PC is not rebuilt for its next user.

In the end, IMHO, the best way to leave is a professional, kind and honourable exit. Perhaps with some stealth. However: No tricks, no regrets, no funny business & no bullshit.

Found Tracking cookie.Atdmt

2011-12-18T11:49:00.000+01:00

For far too long I have not been bothered to correct an irritating error which manifests itself each time I power up and Logon to my Workstation server.

Since Internet Explorer is surgically removed from my Workstation this cookie error is Particularly irritating.

Here are the contents of said annoying file.

So it was time to banish it forever ...

Open Control Panel and Select Internet Options, click on Security Tab

Add the atdmt.com website to the list of restricted sites, save and close.

Now for good measure go into the Cookies directory and delete everything

Finally as a test do a Shutdown, Power Off, Wait, Power On, Logon Test.

Yes, my AVG File Server Anti Virus no longer shows a problem on Logon. Marvellous.

We Need to Talk About Kevin

2011-12-18T00:10:00.001+01:00

We need to talk about Kevin is a book by Lionel Shriver. If I tell you that I absolutely never read any book these days due to time constraints (reading will be resumed when my retirement resumes), well if I say: I have experienced the full unabridged text of this novel you know that this work is something special to me.

This is a fictional story about a child called Kevin who during his whole life from infant to teenager terrorises his mother Eva. The violence ends when Kevin with some pre meditation enters his school locks pupils in the Gymnasium and then using a bow and arrows cold bloodily shoots to kill everyone.

It's modern analog is probably the real life atrocity of Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik

But the point of this post is a film review. I was invited to a screening of the film and left moved but confused. I understood what was happening but to be honest without having read or listened to the audio book the film would be a confusing jumble.

SO: take my advice read the book first, watch the film second, it will be worth it

PS:The film was quite spartan in parts. A possible explanation for this is that various companies were known to have refused to allow their products to be placed in this movie for fear of adverse associations. I am sure Morgan Spurlock would have seen the ironic side of this equation

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We Need to Talk about Kevin