Jude Alex Wheeler

Originally uploaded by domster83

Quick post here to say welcome to my new nephew, Jude Wheeler. He came into the world on friday at about 11.30 and joined his brother Reuben. Mother and baby are all fine. Looking forward to seeing him in the next few weeks.

Also just wanted to mention I’ve started a 365 on Flickr, that is a photo a day of me, not necessarily my face, but I’ll be in that photo somewhere. I’m hoping to learn some new techniques and get on with photoshop along the way. Check that out here

Its been too long since my last post. I have drafted a few but never got round to fully publishing them. I’d like to fool myself and say its because I’ve had no time at all, but thats a bit of a lie. I’ve probably had time but filled it with quality time with the TV or my girlfriend. But no more!

2009 will be a bigger year for blogging for me. I’ll try and do at least one a week if I can, and get more interesting for those of you who read this. 

So what will 2009 bring for me? Hopefully a new house, hopefully a few less job changes and a bit more job security. Hopefully I’ll be able to clear some credit card debt. I may even go so far as publishing some figures on my debt and how I get on with it month on month. Nothing too detailed, just total numbers. 

I’m also hoping to get some more photography into my life, and a bit more travel if I can. I’d like to broaden my cooking horizons and take a stand on a few things in life. How will this all go? God only knows. Best intentions don’t count for much really.

Either way, whether or not the changing of the year means anything, its always a good excuse to make some new changes. Not resolutions as they hold as much value as a paper balloon, but perhaps the promise to myself to make things a bit better for myself and others around me.

And whatever you wish for and aim towards in 2009, good luck! Let me know how you get on.

Windows 7 running in Unity

Originally uploaded by domster83

Hey all. Just a quick post to show you all the latest preview of Windows 7 running in VMWare Fusion on my Macbook Pro. As you can see, Unity mode is working a treat, except for the desktop gadgets

And you can also see that they’ve finally updated Paint! Even if its just to give it the ribbon interface.

When it comes to bags, there are a few big names. Louis Vitton, Gucci, Prada, Toki Doki, Birkin, but none of these have the eccentric names that Crumpler bring to the table.

The CheesyTina is my first (well second really) foray into Crumpler bags but I’ve coveted them, just like Jesus told me to, for a while. This usually comes from spending an hour looking at whatsinmybag tagged photos on Flickr and lusting over each bag. But the time came for me to roll my tongue back up into my mouth and fork over the cold hard cash.

Thanks to the kind people at Devon Cameras, I picked up the Crumpler CheesyTina for a mere £29.95 (plus shipping) which is a utter bargin! I was all set for a trip to the Crumpler shop in London and to cough up £80+.

Why did I choose this bag? Well its all thanks to one man. Benjamin Stanley. After a rather sucessfuly MMUG session at the Solihull Apple Store, a few elite mac geeks went to Pizza Hut Pasta Hut. And it was in this establishment that I spotted Ben’s own CheesyTina and made my enquiries. After a quick guided tour of the pockets and pouches and the ample laptop area, I was sold.

That night I placed my order and waited. Today it arrived, much to my gross excitement, and I can now present the first unboxing shots.

Unboxing

As you may notice, the packaging left a lot to be desired. Compared to my other bag (a Pretty Boy camera bag) it was starkers! No Crumpler cellophane at all!

 Here it is, in all its free-from-a-box glory, waiting to be filled!. 

Exploded CheesyTina

Exhibit C: The removeable Laptop Case, to fit a mac up to 15″  (yes it first 15.4″ widescreens)

I intend on doing a full review, with an indepth tour, and accompanying Flickr set, but need to give it a solid test run with its contents to see how I get on, then I’ll be contributing my own whatsinmybag photo to the pool.

I’ve recently finished working with one employer, and start a new job tomorrow. This job was my first step into IT and it was quite a eye opener, mainly in the way of how not to run your network.

My former employer was a public sector company, and foolishly I expected things to be a bit more secure than they were. And as a result, I’d like to share a few details of what they were going wrong.

1. At least 40% of employees using PC’s used a generic login, really designed for the IT department for debugging.
2. User profiles were locally cached and stored. This meant all your files remain on one PC, provided no means of backing up data, and made PC replacements very difficult.
3. All users had local admin rights. You would be surprised how many PC’s I saw running Firefox, BBC iPlayer, uTorrent. I can say right now that I would never transfer MP3 files or any films downloaded by these tools.
4. Desktops were not locked down. Change your wallpaper, delete or create any files.
5. USB drives, floppy drives and CD drives were all open. So much so that I caught a virus on my USB drive from one PC and spread it around to others before McAfee even detected it!
6. Desktop Support was provided using a tool called PushVNC which is a back-alley way of starting a VNC session with a remote client. Doesn’t provide the user any notification someone is watching or ask for permission. Serious Data Protection Act issues there.

Issues like these can be easily solved, and if someone would make the effort, things would be so much more secure. Group Policies could limit files being saved to My Documents only, stop USB drives, CDs, and floppies being used. No local admin rights would save issues with unauthorised software being used. Roaming profiles could be implemented, mapping a drive to a SAN for the My Documents and caching profiles locally. This would also provide a easier method of backing up, and certainly make my old job of replacing PC’s quicker. I can tell you that the data transfer was the most time consuming thing, especially when you have a Dell GX150 with USB 1.1 giving slow data transfer rates.

Anyway, my new job is private sector, and I’m fairly certain their network will be much more secure and easier to manage. But we shall see…