Sunday, September 18, 2005

Another Ebay Bargain

I have received my new camera lens - another Ebay bargain. For £45 I have bought a 70-210mm AF lens (not a Canon one unfortunately but still quite good).

I will just need to go somewhere to take a couple of pics with it so that I can show off its splendar. Check back soon for an update.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Some good news!

I've finally started to receive good news about my network migration...

I today received several boxes of second-user thin client terminals (Compaq T20s) to replace all the machines in the sixth form ILC which simply refused to boot Thinstation (I think it's some wiered implementation of the embedded i810 graphics). I will also liberally scatter these around some of the other rooms.

Tomorrow, I should be receiving 30 brand spanking HP thin client terminals to replace the room of machines that refuse to allow Etherboot to run from the hard disk (God knows why this is!).

I've also heard good news about my new power supplies to the temporary and new server rooms so I will soon have a 50A supply for my UPS and I will be able to turn everything on!!! :)

To round things off nicely, I have found that my problem receiving email may not be at my end and Chris is going to be working with me next week to help me tweak and fine tune some stuff so that all will be completed! (Now I just have to get out of making Nedap cards)

Monday, September 12, 2005

The Saga Continues...


Well the network migration is continuing to go wrong. I still have no server room, although a temporary space has been found next door to where the server room will eventually end up. Unfortunately, there is not enough power to turn all my equipment on and I need a 50A feed for my UPS!

Incoming email is screwed - I can�t see any reason for this being the case and can only assume that something is going wrong upstream. Outlook Web Access and IIS in general on that server is also screwed though so hey ho!

Once I get the new server room and build my final 2 Citrix servers things should start to look up. Then I�ll just need to tweak the Citrix servers to iron out the remaining problems, retrieve the old shared areas from the old servers and fix Exchange.

Anyhoo - it does look pretty cool already! Posted by Picasa

Southport Airshow

Yesterday I went to the Southport Airshow with Caroline. I was a little reluctant at first, due to the ridiculously early hour that I had to rise (8am no less!). I�m glad that I went though because it gave me a chance to try out my new camera.

There was lots to see � including helicopters, model planes (look at the size of some of them!) and the Red Arrows. I think you can agree that some of the pictures look superb.

There was one slight drawback, however, in that we forgot to take any sun screen and I now look like a lobster (after it has been boiled to the end of time!). Posted by Picasa

Not a bad pic, eh? Posted by Picasa

Thursday, September 08, 2005

My New Toy

I’ve finally found myself a new camera to help me take up my new hobby of photography.

I decided that it might be quite fun to get some gear that will let me do something more artistic than my Canon IXUS 700 (a damn good camera in its own right!) could manage.

Just in case I didn’t like the hobby as much as I thought, I decided to go for a 2nd hand Canon EOS 300D – a digital SLR. I found one for an incredibly good price on Ebay, complete with the 18-55mm lens kit, a 2GB compact flash card and a little bag to keep it in.

I’m rather impressed. Stay tuned to see some of the shots that it produces.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Blackpool Illuminations

The obligatory Illuminations walk had to be performed at some point.

As always, it was just a bunch of lights above the prom. Due to my laziness we missed the fireworks which were set off from a barge between Central Pier and North Pier but we did see hundreds of biker-types on Goldwings with flashing lights and crazy horns and the like.

We also had a quick walk along the beach in the dark. I do not recommend this - particularly since the tide came in ridiculously quickly just after we came off the beach! All in all, not a bad night out and all this walking must be doing me some good! :-) Posted by Picasa