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Showing posts from November, 2010

The Governor (television epic that examined the life of Governor George Grey)

SERIES SYNOPSIS The Governor  was a television epic that examined the life of Governor George Grey in six thematic parts. Grey's "Good Governor" persona was undercut with laudanum, lechery and land confiscation. NZ TV's first (and only) historical blockbuster was hugely controversial, provoking a parliamentary inquiry and "test match sized" audiences. It won a 1978 Feltex Award for Best Drama.  Auckland Star  reviewer Barry Shaw trumpeted: "It has made Māori matter. If Pākehā now have a better understanding of the Māori point of view [...] it stems from  The Governor . Reference: NZONSCREEN   Track Name   Duration   Year   The Governor - The Reverend Traitor (Episode One) 1977 The Governor : Episode One (clip 1) 18:37 The Governor : Episode One (clip 2) 20:06 The Governor : Episode One (clip 3) 19:23 The Governor : Episode One (clip 4) 18:09 The Governor : Episode One (clip 5) 11:44

Madge Networks Farm - August 1995

Andy Cranston writes: " I worked at Madge from May 1995 to February 1996.  Initially at Lodge Farm near Chesham and then at Wexham just north of Slough.  I was one of the software testers working for a chap called Dominic Wilde who reported to one of my top five bosses called John Grubb. Attached is a photo taken at Lodge Farm in August 1995.  Robert Madge's mother is in it (with one of her beloved canines) but my memory, alas,cannot recall any of the other faces! "

Another Madge photo from Woodside, August 1993

Please inbox me details of who is in this photo.

Major incident tsunami

A major incident tsunami , is when a single or a group of Information Technology major incidents occur in a single wave during a very short time period. A tsunami is a single large wave often caused by earthquakes with deep sea epicentres . As with a real tsunami, the effects of an IT major incident tsunami can be devastating. Examples of major incident tsunamis are: worm or virus outbreak like the Nimda virus. patching bug that disables a large proportion of a corporate's desktop. power failure in the data centre where the backup systems fail to operate. when a redundant system experiences a failure to both redundant components. security certificates expiring on a large number of networked devices , resulting in them all becoming inoperable. a migration process fault where a flood of calls hits a call centre simultaneously. When a major incident tsunami hits, the internal support capabilities of an organization are overwhelmed. The best method to handle these occure

FCAPS checklist

This FCAPS checklist is from Solarwinds . ( Chapter 1: FCAPS, Network Management Fundamentals, and Fault Management ) Fault management Fault detection Fault correction Fault isolation Network recovery Alarm handling Alarm filtering Alarm generation Clear correlation Diagnostic test Error logging Error handling Error statistics Configuration management Resource initialization Network provisioning Auto-discovery Backup and restore Resource shut down Change management Pre-provisioning Inventory/asset management Copy configuration Remote configuration Automated software distribution Job initiation, tracking, and execution Accounting management Track service/resource use Cost for services Accounting limit Usage quotas Audits Fraud reporting Combine costs from multiple resources Support for different accounting modes Performance management Utilization and error rates Performance data collection Consistent performance level Performance dat

Common incident management issues

The following post on the Security Procedure blog lists some common incident management issues. Incident management is a fundamental ITIL process. Common incident management issues include: Extended resolution times Inconsistent service delivery/approach to resolution Incomplete fixes/Incidents needing to be re-opened Too many touch points required to resolve an issue Inefficient trouble shooting procedures Poor visibility of impact of incidents upon the business Routing errors/Multiple re-assignments Inappropriate prioritization of incidents Inefficient workload management Poor communication of outages and their impact Lack of a closed loop process i.e. no formal closure Continuously re-inventing the wheel Ineffective use of knowledge repositories Poor categorisation/classification of incidents Buck passing between functional/implementation groups Lack of visibility of incident status Temporary workarounds being left in place as permanent fixes Unnecess

Definition of the Ostrich principle

The Ostrich Principle as defined by James McGovern : "Since you were so busy aligning with the business which really means that you are neither a real IT professional nor business professional, you have spent much of your time perfecting memorization of cliche phrases and nomenclature and hoping that the problem will go away if you ignore it."

Seffrican computer terms (we'll need them after the rolling blackouts)

Monitor - keeping an eye on the braai. Download - get the firewood off the bakkie. Hard drive - trip back home without any cold beer. Keyboard - where you hang the bakkie and bike keys. Window - what you shut when it's cold. Screen - what you shut in the mosquito season. Byte - what mosquitoes do. Bit - what mosquitoes did. Megabyte - what mosquitoes at the water hole do. Chip - a bar snack. Microchip - what's left in the bag after you have eaten the chips. Modem -what you did to the lawns. Dot Matrix - Oom Jan Matrix's wife. Laptop - where the cat sleeps. Software - plastic knives and forks you get at KFC. Hardware - real stainless steel knives and forks from Checkers. Mouse - what eats the grain in the shed. Mainframe - what holds the shed up. Web - what spiders make. Web site - the shed (or under the verandah). Cursor - the old bloke that swears a lot. Search engine - what you do when the bakkie won't go. Yahoo - what you say when t

When fake is close to reality

I noticed this video over at Strech's blog , which is a viral Cisco campaign and a fake. But the scary thing was that it was too close to reality as I have too often seen people behave in this manner, maybe even myself. I admit, I did once lose it with a washing machine... IT service desks have to deal with these unreasonable ar ... err... customers, on a daily basis.