Musings of a Demented Soul - Andy Barrow

Completely different to working on computers and less frustrating. I saw an advert on the haunted fish tank (TV) and thought how cool is that. So now I am starting a collection. The issues each include the various parts and currently have issue 9, so by rights I should be able to piece together and make this orrery (ollylolly if you cannot say your R’s).

The whole think is motorised too, so once it is complete the planets revolve around the Sun and move in the exact way our solar system moves. It is made out of solid brass and thankfully comes with destructions on how to put it all together. A nice little distraction.

wow, or maybe WOW!!! Yes another long pause between posts. Sadly neglected this site, although some would say thank god. However, I have been busy in my new role and so far, loving every minute. Apart from those odd moments when I don’t. Yes, me an IT support Officer, who would have thunk it? Not me that’s for sure. So what have I been doing these past few months. Where do I begin? I had to project manage the server relocation from Melbourne to here in Sydney. Started off with building a new server room, then adding the air conditioning, then having dedicated mains supply, arranging a dedicated van and person to pack, load, drive non stop and deliver said servers to Sydney the next day, ooh a nice 11 hour drive or so, over 1100K’s distance. Unload, unpack and slot into nice shiny new rack, complete with Cat6 cabling, new Fibre link from Unit A to Unit F (very expensive 2 Mb link - 250 mtr’s).

The plan was good and the servers were back online by Lunchtime, DNS and IP changes made and mail server up and running. Next step was to setup all the 90 PCs with the new IP addresses for remote access (laptops only) and the new server ip addresses for Citrix servers. Thanks to the help from Jeremy (The Grid Corporation). The only hiccup we encountered was the SQL server didn’t want to fire up. Hmmm, that was fun. Any ways 30 restarts and 400 swear words later, the POS started up - thanks to the Golden touch from the MD, who was also involved. Yes an MD with a very Hands on approach, quite refreshing really.

The next stage was to move over from AAPT to Telstra - I could write a hole war and peace on that, so here is the quick and nasty version. AAPT Bad - Telstra even worse. Could not project manage a root in a brothel with a fist-full of hundreds. Finally got that completed at the same time we moved over onto Exchange Server 2007. Same weekend! Madness, but it worked.

All this done in my first 3 months and dare I say probationary period. So a good test of my character and mad skillz yo to see if I had what it takes. Thankfully with help i managed to pull it off without any further loss of hair on my head. Just my sanity remains in question.

All of the above, with the additional day to day churn of people not being able to use a mouse and keyboard properly, Accpac issues, servers shitting themselves for no apparent reason and printers messing with my mojo. Network printers are the spawn of Satan I swear.

I have further convinced myself that I hate computers, this HP laptop is my crowning glory for pissing me off no end only to find that after a few updates from MS then the ability to not swipe my finger on the reader and log in, then lose Wireless access, then yet more updates and then the ability to get back which that I had lost, only confirms, PCs are pond scum.

I am blessed with a new system, Exchange 2007 integrates nicely into the Active Directory and reduces my work load with having to create a new user and configure Accpac writes and privileges, no more 3 or 4 systems now. Now we are looking at BES for Blackberry’s, one more item on the ever growing list. My First quest is to seriously reduce the amount of printers we have on the system - Bloody Kyocera printers cannot make the same Toner unit fit more than one machine - Bastardo’s!!!! New printer - new toner to add to the increasing stationary order.

I am sure I have missed something off here, but once I have read through this post, no doubt I will probably end up making 3 more post’s - or not.

Tis good to be back!!!!

quite a lot has been happening recently at work, so not really had the chance to enter much here. There has been another reason this week why I haven’t posted anything. I got a promotion to IT Support Officer. I am responsible for support issues within the RFD Group here in Australia. WA, Karatha, Vic, NSW and Brisbane. One of our well established colleagues resigned to lead a life of peace and quiet and seek out new challenges. With her leaving the company left quite a big gap in the role she played. However, I could not fill her shoes with the knowledge she has gained, thus leaving a space for change. I was offered the role last Friday and was given the weekend to consider the move. I will remain in Sydney, but may require little jaunts to the various States from time to time, although not mentioned, it pretty much goes without saying, that I will be required to visit the other States.

My new role commences next week, so off with the Hi Viz clothing for something more business like and a whole new set of challenges and things to learn. The job comes with a Laptop and a phone, sounds good, but i am sure I will regret the phone at some point. I will also be responsible for help in co-ordination of the server relocation here to Sydney and a new phone system. We will be moving onto a new email server - brand new and exchange. These are all the things happening the forthcomming months.

Sacred? Maybe a little. i have been out of the game for a while, so will need to brush up on the skills I had and learn new ones. Looking forward to the challenge? Yes! Whilst I enjoyed working in the Stores, my role evolved from that of basic stock picking and packaging/posting out to customers. It became more admin with receipting stock so that the sales team could invoice/bill the customers. Raising requisitions for stock, arranging pickups, Booking goods in when Chris was on vacation. Ordering stock was one of the key features of my old role.

I will miss the freedom of the stores and the banter we had. It was a very good atmosphere to be submerged into, no doubt the next person will enjoy the humour we all shared.

The announcement was made today by the MD, stating my new role and when it commenced. Sadly some people didn’t listen and gave me a call today…. Ahh well, some things will never change. So onwards and upwards.

I wrote earlier on the differences between SLR and DSLR, the benefits of both still quite valid. I recently watched a program ‘Selling Houses Australia’ which during one of the many Ad breaks, Sony ran an advert on their DSLR’s. So naturally i went and looked them up on the site. I was expecting silly prices but found a favourable price. Better spec than the Canon I have, higher pixel ISO ratings were higher and Spot Metering.

http://dslr.sony.com.au/SonyAlpha/range_camera_a350_specs.htm

The flash video intro is worthy of a look too!

http://dslr.sony.com.au/SonyAlpha/

Now from my previous post, Dentist was mentioned as was Dentures. Now in case you are wondering if I wouldnt look out of place as an extra in the Film Deliverance, you would be right, except I don’t have a pretty mouth boy, I aint gonna squeal for no fekker!!! Its not that I didn’t look after the old fangs, its down to ONE BAD DENTIST!!!!! A female dentist who was based in Penketh, Cheshire UK. She almost drowned me in Novacaine - she used a leaky Syringe, the big shiny silver one used to pin your head to the seat when they inject you. A name and shame time

Mrs A P Carden
Rose Cottage Dental Surgery 179 Warrington Road
Penketh Cheshire WA5 2EN

 - Butcher!, Useless nasty dentist. Dislocated my jaw, snapped a tooth off and left the root, jagged in my gum and had the nerve to say ” if you have any problems you will need to see a dental surgeon” hmm, but what was on the name plaque outside Mrs Carden Dental Surgeon?!?!?!?!

4 days I had a face like elephant man and even got an audition because of it (the last part was a joke, in case you are wondering). So you see, my mouth never smiles because I can’t, because I need to see a Dentist, who can actually do their job, not inflict pain, suffering and actually do what they are supposed to do. Lets say, that if I was to go into a waiting room, my heart rate would triple, blood pressure would sky rocket and I would probably run like a marathon athelete on steroids, out of the said waiting room an never be seen again. Ahhhh, Phobia. Fear of the Fear.

Now I do recall, that the address given is now used by someone else and the Butcher has since moved on. I had a converstion with some woman whom had just been into the Dentist and we both spoke about her. It appeared that she was disliked and should have practised plastering or butchery as a dentist she most definitelty was not.

Yet another entry starting off with… not posted anything here for a while. So, whilst I have neglected to fill my blog with my usual inane ramblings, I have been messing around with facebook. It makes a welcome change from writing here and only getting the occaisional comment. Last friday saw me start with a heavy cold or some bloody flu germ. The weather here has certainly managed to breed a few of these bugs. Lucky for me, or not as the case maybe, that it happened on the weekend and not midweek. Sadly the option of going into work on the Monday did not go to plan, Sunday night started me on the path of pain and not being able to sleep, let alone eat. An Abcsess put paid to any chance of sleep and what bit of snooze time was broken again with the need to get out of bed again and take another pain killer. Monday saw me getting more drugs to kill the infection, thus far I have had only a few bouts of real pain and the swelling has now decreased. Today was the first day I managed to eat solids.

Yes its time to get myself to a dentist The teeth are in need of replacing with something less permanent, the good old Dentures, Oh Joy! So whats with people being people. Well, without going into too much detail, purely because my blog is now known to more people in work than I had hoped, I will have to skip certain details, you will have to use the old imagination and fill in the blanks. Now I can put up with mood swings and loud personalities, I have dealt and endured all that for most of my working life. I can even put up with, to a certain degree, people who just have no manners or have such an attitude that would try the patience of a saint. What I do find hard is people who can be nice one day and do a complete 180 and become an anal whinging git the next.

I work in Sydney or a suburb of Sydney, I have lived in Sydney for 4 years now and love it. Yes its not perfect, but compaired to where I came from, its a damn site better and I am all the happier for being here. Period. Now I know that peoples attitudes differed somewhat back in the UK, dependant upon where you lived, as did the sense of humour, also based on where you lived and what you did for a living, ie; office humour, workshop humour and so on. Australia, in case you ‘didn’t’ know is a big place and is divided up into different states and territories, oh and not forgetting Tassie, Tasmania, that little bit that broke away from Victoria many millenia ago (just a wild guess and based on having no bloody idea if true or not.)

Each State has its way of life, albeit based upon the way of life that Most, if not all Aussies live by. However, it seems to me that differing states have a different outlook on other states and also adopt a different attitude. same can be said for where I used to live, the habitual hate/dislike/not really bothered attitude between the North and South. Engllish hating the Welsh and vice versa, Scottish hating the English and the Irish not liking the English to a degree, Bloody English upstarts

Anyway, it came to my attention today that a certain person had suddenly lost the sense of humour chip 1.1 and had replaced with anal and short term delusions of grandeur plugin 3.6, making this person reach a sphincter rating of 9.9, surely this person must remember certain e-mails contianing humourous jokes and passing on likings to a certain vehicle to ‘ALL’ at the comapnies e-mail domain. then suddenly has a disliking to a certain comment, and read only in a reply by someone else to 4 or 5 people in the CC field, saw my comment then saw their arse over it. let me make myself clear, ‘Dude’ is not offensive and the context of the e-mail was humourous as was the reply to me. which also includes 4 other people. I find it hard to believe that people can change. If it had been a Boss and I had called him/her a useless waste of space, then yes, I would expect some friction. My comment was in good taste and had no undertones of dislike or taking the piss (’taking the piss’ one of Australias main competitive sports…after Cricket, Rugby, Tennis, Golf, swimming….et all)

Myself, have been called many things, some would take offense too, but I merely expect, because I am a Pome, its par for the course, so just get on with it. If I had taken offense to all the things said to me in jest, I would be up for murder. These people who take themselves so serious. Get a grip! Pull your head in or out of your arse, because you are not really that important, its your own insecurities, buy a comfort blanket or just bloody grow up.

Rant Over!

It has been a short while since I last posted on here. I have been busy with Facebook. The reason why I have been busy with facebook is simple. Friendsreunited have gone free, so anyone can register on there and take full advantage of the features. Every now and again I get e-mails telling me that someone new has joined, so I log onto reunited and check out whos who. I managed to find a few more people and drop them a message to say Hi and find out what they are upto these days.

I was told that most of the people I worked with at U-NET/Via Not Works were on facebook, so I edited my profile and added a few people I knew, which led onto a few more and more. I have been so tied up with it, chatting to an Old mate Shaun, whom I used to work Night Shift with, all those years ago. It has been fun stomping down memory lane. So whats this got to do with Vista vs XP or vice versa?

It was easier trying to find these people than it is to find work arounds or do simple things that I could do in XP. I decided that i would try and edit/create my own theme, so I downloaded some server software so i could trial out my ideas and test my own designs on things not relating to my blog. My main site has been dormant for years, I felt it was time to do something about it. Even if its a basic homepage with a few gadgets and gismos, until i can add something worthy of the bandwidth (as if this isn’t).

I tried 2 lots of server apps, Xampp and Wamp Server. Both looking good, easy to install, but windows Vista does like to mess with your head. So having used Xamp before and know it works well, I tried that, no success. Tried installing Wordpress and 500 server errors all the time, tried running as Admin, made no difference.

Music Software had serious issues too. Sadly no more as I have deleted them off the system, kinda defeats me having a shiny new fast laptop. So my decision is to replace Vista with XP. I just need to ensure that all the gizzmos work under XP. So tonight I have breathed life back into an old machine, in various states of decay. Currently sitting on a format of 74% so not long to go before Xp begins to install. I used a Maxtor CD to erase the drive and format etc. Now windaz is doing the same. Just to make sure. I really do miss FDISK, such a wonderful tool to have in your arsenal.

Still waiting on Mickey Soft to get back to me, called them 6 days ago, still no response. But hey, i kinda new that would happen. I complained that Vista was the spawn of satan and rather than moving forward, I was taking wacking big leaps backwards. I suppose I didn’t help my cause?

81% and maybe i can do some actual design work and trial it out on a system that will allow me to.

Sam and myself had decided to make the most of a Sunday I believe and go for a drive. We made our way through the trough of Bowland and headed off to Lancaster. Why? Because we could and so we did. Armed with my camera and a few rolls of film, I managed to capture some good photographs. This one below is of a vintage motorbike, for the bike enthusiasts here (if only that were true), you maybe able to pick out the make and model.

Copyright Andy’s Home Studios © 2008

as you can imagine, when you move from one house to the next and even from one country to another, stuff gets misplaced. Thankfully I have located some 35mm colour negatives that contain one foto that I was very proud of. It was taken on the Minolta Dynax 8000i using the 135mm lens and fully open. The film is kodak 400 and as far as I can tell is intact. The picture is of a little girl and her Grandad, who had taken her to the river in Lancaster, a day in which myself and Sam had just gone out for a drive. It pretty much shows each of their weaknesses and their strengths, frailty of age, yet strong in care and love, the little girl whose legs were just managing to walk and her trust in her carer. See for yourself
Copyright Andy’s Home Studio’s ©2008

I have added new links which I felt worthy of getting listed. i am in the process of looking to add more links in the photographic section, I just need to find like minded peeps for Music. I may also need to look at blogs on Diving too, which will be another interest of mine soon…when the weather picks up,too much rain at the moment I don’t want to get wet :-)