Andy Millar

Why, just why?

Do people really add these stupid facebook applications just because someone they may or may not know has added them and then sent them the request?

Sorry, but I don’t think I’ll ever want to play “Have I Ever…”.

ISPs are claiming that the BBC should pick up the extra network costs caused by IPlayer reports the BBC.

I find this a little hard to understand.

For years, ISPs have happily offered “Unlimited” packages with no download limits.

There is no ambiquety there, there there are no download limits!

All of a sudden, it seems, normal internet users are doing more than just checking their email, Facebook, and the current football score and ISPs are throwing a hissy fit!

Maybe ISPs should just face up to the facts that they can’t offer Unlimited packages?

Saying “Citation Needed” whenever someone quotes a statistic or problem.

E.g.

< g666RL> but you cant even use drag n drop in ubuntu!?

and

< menzum1> kevin: only 1% uses it for home

##windows on irc.freenode.org has provided plenty of material for this new hobby!

Facebook scares me because it allows people to type things like this:

O nd btw iv deciced that for every embarassin photo of me u tag, im gonna put one up of u………………nd trust me they r worse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
l.u.m.t.w.c.s (try nd work that out)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Surely there has to be a way to prevent people from making themselves unemployable by writing this sort of rubbish?

I wonder if making them install Firefox, which has an inbuilt spell-checker, would help?

Anyone have any ideas what “l.u.m.t.w.c.s” might mean? Answers on a postcard please!

Both Microsoft Virtual Server 2003 and Vmware Server are free virtual server hosts offering very similar features.

I have recently had the (mis)fortune of attempting to configure one of my personal servers as a Virtual Machine host in an attempt to consolidate all my servers and reduce my IT spend.

I currently have (separate) servers that fulfill the following roles:

• Mail (Microsoft Exchange) Server
• Web Server
• Inbound/Outbound Mail Exchange

Whilst having these applications on separate physical machines increases redundancy, it creates a rather large monthly IT spend.

What I intend to do is to convert my Mail Server (Running Windows 2003) into a Virtual Machine host and then migrate all roles onto separate Virtual Machines. This also includes migrating the Exchange Server from the Host onto a Virtual Machine so as to minimize downtime.

My initial thought was to run Vmware as the Virtual Host platform, however this had some rather significant drawbacks:

• Creating a new Virtual Machine disk locked the server up for 10 to 15 minutes.
• The Linux installer would hang if any other Virtual Machine was running at the time of install.
• Virtual Machine Guests were noticeably latent.
• The Virtual Console requires a client to be installed.

In an attempt to resolve these problems, I tried Microsoft Virtual Server 2003.

The Virtual Server 2003 installer was faster, and Virtual Machines significantly more responsive. Creating a new Virtual Machine takes a matter of seconds with no noticeable adverse effects on the Virtual Machine Host.

Microsoft Virtual Server 2003 also comes with a rather nice web interface where you have full console access.

I admit that the latency problems may be partially caused by the fact that the Host has not yet had a RAM upgrade! It is currently running with 1GB DDRII instead of the 3GB it will have before being commissioned properly.

It appears that Microsoft win this one! Their Virtual Server platform appears to be rather awesome.

It has been suggested that I should use xen instead, however the constraint of running on a Windows 2003 Server Host Operating System has resulted in this being impossible.

Mass emails for events occurring during a holiday period are generally bad.

Chances are that the person you’re emailing is out of the office, so will not read the email till they are back in.

Secondly, and more importantly, chances are that they will have an out of office auto-responder that Microsoft so kindly added as a feature in Outlook/Exchange.

For all of you that have sent out Seasons Greetings via email, I hope you enjoyed the torrent of “I’m sorry but I am out of the office” emails.

May this be a lesson to you all that sending mass emails is bad!

So, this morning I got out of bed and trod on some broken glass :(

The offending item, once removed from my foot, is photographed below:

When removed from my foot, blood practically poured out of the hole, leaving a mini-puddle on the floor.

It took quick wits, otherwise known as putting hand over hole, to stop the bleeding.

Note the red patches on the top edge of the glass. This is real blood from my foot!