I’ll be back in the studio soon with the Willin’ fools but before I go in I wanted to have a few options recorded so I could listen back to check their suitability.
Here are about eight of the tracks I recorded.
The following tunes are recorded with no editing or corrections.
This is seriously amazing.
I spend a hell of a lot of money on any set of ear phones I buy. This pair cost me about a hundred and fifty Euro and I’ve had them for almost a year now. They came with silicone tips and the sound is very reasonable. They’ve never really blown me away though and considering the cost of them that’s a little disappointing. Still, they were worth it because the sound was always very clear and never distorted. Last night, Emma baught a new pair of ear phones. She of course wouldn’t have the same reasons to spend as much as I do on them but the set she got were very good none the less. They came with these memory foam tips that can be used instead of the silicone inserts. I was surprised at the quality of sound she got from her ear phones when she used these so I gave them a go. When I say that they make a massive and unbelieveable difference I’d be understating it. It is just incredible! She got a spare set of these memory foam tips so I am using them on my ear phones at the moment. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the silicone alternatives.
If you have a set of ear phones that use the silicone tips may I strongly suggest you give this a go. the memory foam tips are really cheap and the site that I’ll point you to can do them in any size to suit almost every kind of ear phone / headset.
Do it right now. You’ll never look back. The site you should visit is at http://www.complyfoam.com/foam-replacement-tips/
Dear Ike,
I am very sorry for the inconvenience however I must unfortunately inform you that it is completely impossible to eat with your toy in your mouth at the same time.
Kindest regards
Me.
Well would you look at that!
Are you sure there’s not some kind of mistake?
Ah, you must be wrong!
Oh. I know what it is…. it’s a prank! It is… Isn’t it?
This dodgyist of dodgy domains was nominated for best personal blog in the Irish blog awards. Then, to my astonishment, it gets worse! It was short listed.
It’s down to 25 people. But wow. their 24 fantastic people. Look at the other blogs that are there.
Two that really stick out are:
Yuck! My dog just farted. On that note…… Time to go.
I wonder. Is this too much to ask?
I’m looking for a free knowledgebase. It doesn’t have to have loads of bells and whistles but it needs to be able to do the following.
Nice features to have would be:
I don’t think that’s asking all that much.
At the moment all the documentation is sitting on a file share. It’s organized using folders but all the documents have fully utilized properties therefore in a perfect world it should at least be possible to sort and view them by author, subject etc. I’m surprised that with the libraries in Windows 7 this isn’t already possible. To start with this kind of solution would even be nice compared to what we have at the moment.
Any suggestions?
In work I have been trying to fix the implementation of a syslog / eventlog server that currently runs on a Windows 2003 server. It’s a very nice product called event log analyser by Manage Engine.
I’ve had issues with the database. Not due to the software but due to my lack of understanding of how it was configured. Unfortunately the person who set this software up is no longer with the company that I work for and it looks like although he has made the application very secure he has not documented his work. This is probably one of the most under rated but most important responsibilities of a system administrator. IF your setting up a new system or even if your just making a change to the configuration of a system it needs to be documented. At most you will ensure the person succeeding you will be able to take over where you left off but at minimum you’ll remind your self what you did a few months later when you have to look at it again.
The event log analyser that we use looks like it would run on Linux more efficiently. The Windows server it is currently installed on is using more resources on keeping the operating system running than keeping the application performing well. I also prefer this kind of thing running on Linux because it’s rock solid and in the unlikely event that something goes wrong the logs are usually much more comprehensive and easier to read than those found in windows.
The problem with the event log analyser running on Linux is that it requires a Windows event log forwarder on each monitored system running the Windows operating system. As this organization primarily uses Windows this is a bit of a chalange. Of course, if I found a good event log forwarder that ran as a service and could be configured remotely then I’d be fine because using either SCCM or group policy I could easily deploy it to all servers in the estate. With a bit of research I found that using event mon from monware will do everything I need. It runs as a small service requiring no user intervention during installation and it can be configured via the registry. This registry configuration can be exported by the eventmon client and then distributed via group policy or SCCM so it would be really nice to get this running. Unfortunately it involves a licence cost. As we’re already paying for the ManageEngine event log analyser this isn’t really a viable option. There is no way that I can justify my own preferences for the purchase of additional licenses when with a little more work I can get the event log analyser running on a Windows machine that will inherently support our Windows servers without the use of an event log forwarder. There is an appliccation out there called NT syslog however although this runs as a service and from my understanding it’s free, it doesn’t support windows 2008 servers and it’s no longer in development.
There are a few things I don’t like about the event log analyser. Firstly, it looks like it was made for Linux and just ported to Windows as an afterthought. There is no real user interface on the windows side of things. Of course the event log analyser comes with a really great web interface but when trying to troubleshoot why the application isn’t connecting to it’s proprietary and cut down version of MySQL it’s very difficult to see how it all fits together. There are bat files that expect arguements when run from a command line however there’s no documentation of these arguements. when I’ve tried to guess them the output I get is far from descriptive. There are also scripts and exedutables everywhere and very little documentation of anything outside the web interface.
I love syslog servers. The ability to see all the event logs at a glance and report on the top errors and the top error generators is a fantastic facility. Especially when administering hundreds of servers. Unfortunately my experience with this type of server has been far from good. They usually have fantastic web front ends and terrible back ends / terrible documentation for the back end or they have a fantastic back end but poor or limited functionality in the web based interface. I just don’t seem to be able to wind when using these products.
Ok. I’m going to dive into this again.
Hay, on the up side, while configuring the test Linux server yesterday I decided to install OpenSuSE 11.3. I hadn’t used OpenSuSe in a while so it was nice to have a look at the changes in it. To my delight and surprise it connected to the active directory instantly without any added configuration. This is a really nice improvement. I hope that other distributions of Linux follow this example. It would be nice to have one set of credentials for all systems.
Emma bought this whistle for me for christmas. I know. It was very good of her wasn’t it?
Unfortunately the one she received in the post was defective. Fair play to Phill, the maker of these fantastic Chiefton whistles though. HE fixed the problem and now it’s sounding very well. The issue that it had was the high F went very sharp when I used a grace note or a role. I hadn’t experienced this issue on any of his other whistles so I knew it was just a single defect. Have a listen to A jig on this lovely B flat whistle. It’s not great. It’s just something I recorded without doing any messing. It should give you an idea of the lovely tone from this.
Installing RSAT in Windows 7 is actually very easy. Download the Remote Server Administration Tools from the Microsoft website and run the executable. When it installs it will provide you with a help file. This contains all the information you need to enable the new functionality. For handyness, follow these instructions.
This will allow you to administer both windows 2003 and Windows 2008 domains.
There’s a lot more functionality in this than just active directory users and computers but it was a good starting point. Look through the newly created administrative tools option in the start menu to find out what else is available to you.
Running wild!
On Saturday I took Ike on his first free run. Free runs are where the dog gets to forget about work for a while. All training and commands basically go out the window for an hour or so. Guide dogs ordinarily get a free run every week to let them burn off some steam but because I was working hard on getting Ike’s routine settled he hadn’t had one for two and a half weeks. This is something that most guide dog users need to do after qualifying. It’s not usually a good idea to free run the dog too soon after leaving the centre
I took Ike to a place called Townly hall in Drogheda. It’s a forest with defined paths and walking routes and all dogs love it. It’s very quiet and out of the way and there is a lot for dogs to run around and sniff. There are paths that have a hundred feet drop to the road on one side so it’s not somewhere I’d walk around on my own but the walk areas are about three feet wide so their reasonably safe. Ike had no problems with it. He wasn’t silly enough to chance going too far over to the edge as I expected. It made for some great pictures though. As always, Emma had the camera at hand to catch pictures that thought my blog readers would appreciate. I’m also hoping to send a few of these to Ike’s puppy walker to show that he’s enjoying his new life here and to also show my appreciation for the fantastic work she has done.
Before Ike went on his free run I had a favour to do for someone. I had to give people a hand move some furniture, carpets and a large chest freezer from a shed back into the house. Ike let me down here. I wasn’t happy with him at all but this is because it’s hard to not have certain expectations. I could trust Freddie to sit at one side or at most follow me while I was doing whatever it was that needed to be done. Ike instead decided to go tearing into a field. I understand he saw the open spaces and he thought it was a perfect opportunity to go running off but this is unacceptable. I understand he wasn’t officially working however he should at least have been obedient. If this doesn’t improve I don’t know how I’ll handle him in these kinds of situations. I’m not use to paying a dog attention or locking him away when I have physical work to do. Locking him away somewhere doesn’t seem fair. I need him to understand that he can have freedom but he has to come back when I call him. Yesterday when I called him back he ignored me. When he eventually came back he just wanted to play. This isn’t like him either. When he’s free running his recall is fantastic! I tried to explain yesterday that this was completely out of character for him but I was trying to convince myself more than anyone else though.
Anyway. That’s all done and over with. It has me a bit worried because there are a number of situations I find I can’t trust him in as much as I could trust Freddie but I’ll keep it up and see how it gets on.
As you’ll see from the pictures Ike really enjoyed himself. For those who can’t, take my word for it. He got to run around like a crazy thing. He stuck his nose in everything and he got to play with a tree. Yes. A tree. I don’t know why he decided to pull out of a tree branch. The branch obviously annoyed him in some way so he decided it needed to be grabbed and pulled. When it comes to this kind of thing. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably better to ask less questions and just let him get on with it.
For those who have been keeping up with these posts, you may be happy to read that since last Tuesday he has not spent on a walk once. He has relieved himself twice a day. Once in the morning and once again in the afternoon. Because the free run would have messed up his routine I’m a little concerned about Monday but I’m hopeful at the same time.
Up until version 4.5 VMware View Administrator was accessible to Blind administrators using Jaws for Windows. Unfortunately at version 4.5 they introduced some kind of flash control on the page and focus will not leave it. It is now impossible to access any of the tables or other elements of the pages in this interface. This is a major pity. With some work on the part of screen reader users all of the VMware tools and utilities were reasonably accessible with the exception of the VMware P2V standalone client. With the inaccessibility of VMware View this entire platform becomes completely unusable for blind administrators. Considering the legal requirements for government departments in the US to only use accessible software I wonder if VMware ESX would become a usable platform. I certainly hope this is the case however I doubt I’m right for some reason. I seriously believe that all companies who do not make accessible software should be firmly penalised.
I have submitted a support request in relation to this. Either way I should hear something back from them. I would hope to have an update in relation to this by tomorrow.
What people don’t realise is with every application that becomes inaccessible I have one more thing that I can’t do. How am I meant to administer VMware View and the large infrastructure we have based on this virtual platform when I no longer have access to the administrative interface? If I can’t do my job should I be kept in employment? Of course not! Of course, as always I’ll fight and I’ll protest with the company who have made this change but it rarely makes a difference. Yet again I will need to find something else to do to ensure I take an equal share of the responsibility while hoping someone is nice enough to take this particular task off me.
I shouldn’t have to do this. Companies should take responsibility for the user interfaces they create. If this flash control was created properly and due consideration was given to keyboard focus I would not be in this situation yet again.
Please do not see this as a rant. See it as a warning. A warning that if more people do not speak up over the lack of access in enterprise applications then you will effectively help in creating a cealing for blind people working in the IT industry as they simply will not be able to progress above a certain point as the applications they require will be inaccessible. What’s the point in working if you have nothing to strive to? If you’re sighted put yourself in my shoes. What if you use Microsoft word every day and Microsoft released an update that meant that you could only see a very small bit of the screen when in Microsoft word. How could you work when you only had access to a tiny part of the application? I know. That’s highly unlikely but you see where I’m coming from hopefully.
