Follow-up

One other device that actually does exist: the hand-held browser. I don't mean those abominations of mobile phones (WAP, anyone?), but this device from Nokia looks as though it's heading in the right direction. In fact, I want one. Now, where's the GPS and MP4 playback?

Devices to die for

We've been talking about a few potential gadgets or devices that we'd find useful at work. I can't believe that no-one has come up with these yet.

First off, why do we put up with horrible patch panels and switches? What about integrating the whole thing, so the port leads are connected straight into the back of the switch, and all you'd need as a couple of RJ45 ports for servers and stacking? Lose that rat's nest.

There's been some discussionon the perfect PDA/phone device. I think it's still unreasonable to expect it in the near future, but such a device would have to contain GPS functionality as well as all forms of wireless networking, be able to act as an MP3 player and have USB connectivity to make use of its 20 Gb on board storage for file transfer. And all in a form factor easy enough to hold in one hand. Batteries that last longer than twenty minutes might be a good idea, too!

My personal preference is for a terminal device. I'm bugged by the lack of serial ports on so many systems nowadays. Laptops seem to have retained the all-but-useless parallel port at the expense of a decent 9 pin serial connection. But what I'd really like is a handheld unit with serial and network connectivity built in, to allow for device testing. Suggestions welcomed.

Update

OK, OK, I was supposed to keep this up to date a bit more often. Excuses? Well, on the biking side, the weather has been almost uniformly miserable, bad enough over the recent weekend that I couldn't even see the end of the road. Not conducive to riding with confidence.

Work-wise, I've also been somewhat busy: most of the details are perforce not things I can write about here, but the generalities are OK. Spent some time in Wales setting up a system - interesting people and work, but a long way to go. We need to plan how we're going to support this with care, since I don't want to let anyone down or leave them feeling neglected. Back in Scotland, the local support requirements remain, and we're making more efforts to get out and press the flesh a bit. Although we do maintain systems remotely, it's not he same as being seen on site.

Plus we've had a couple of near-disasters on the networking side on our own site, including losing our Internet connectivity through waht I can only imagine was a phoneline spike - took out both the router and firewall. Somewhat fortunate that I had spare kit to replace the aging boxes we used, but it is not as effective. The upside of this is that it's forced us into investing in new kit, with all the concomitant enjoyment of configuring it. Joy - not.

So what's new

Reports of 'blogs' being used to attract visitors to web sites and then using social engineering to infect their PCs with malware? Surely it's just the use of the word 'blog' that makes this any different from previous scams. Websites have long been dangerous places to visit for the unwary and I find it difficult to understand why this is being touted as anything new. Just journalistic scaremongering again.

Ouch!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4426949.stm


Nine years for spamming. That must hurt. I'm of two minds over whether this is an appropriate punishment for the crime, but would probably come down on the side of jail. He obviously knew what he was doing when he sent the emails, and this is not only a deliberate waste of peoples' time, but is also clearly an attempt to hide the extent of his duplicity. Accidents and genuine mistakes may be forgiven, but this does not appear to be the case here.

I also dislike using technicalities to get off what appears to a clear cut verdict. Add another nine years.

RTFM

For several reasons, it seems like a good idea to build my own email server now. I've put it off for long enough, but I suspect that as my online life gets more complicated it's something that I'll find increasingly useful.

So I put a new Fedora box together tonight and started up sendmail. Problem - I can connect to 127.0.0.1, but not from any remote host. It's not the firewall (I keep having to re-learn iptables on a weekly basis), the port is open, but nothing responds.

Eventually, I read the instructions - is it a deliberate 'gotcha' to restrict the server from responding to anything other than localhost in the default configuration? A one-line fix to sendmail.mc, recompile and it's working. Approx 3 days quicker than qmail.

Back on the road again

One of the aims of this blog was to talk about the motorcycling environment in the UK. Or, more specifically, Scotland. In a word - wet. The forecast is consistently 'rain', 'light rain', 'showers' or occasionally 'heavy rain'. So it's probably not surprising that I don't get out as often as I'd like.

I'm no summer-only rider, but don't see the point in getting uncomfortable or taking risks on patchy roads when it's just plain unpleasant to be out on the bike. Although I've used two wheels to commute on the rare dry days we've had over winter, it's been just a bit too difficult to justify long-term. So it was very satisfying to get out on Good Friday when the roads were dry and relatively empty for a good run; it certainly got rid of some of the cobwebs and I was well on the way towards regaining confidence for the summer. Unfortunately, since then I've either been travelling or had other commitments, or the weather's been consistently bad both in the forecast and in reality.

Perhaps the coming weeks will see things relent a bit, and I'll be able to get back to finding new roads and revisiting old favourites. First chance I get I want to try the Lang Whang (the A70 south of Edinburgh), since it must have been over seven years since I last rode that way; they've let some of the tarmac really deteriorate, but in other areas it's been recovered and is as pleasant a surface as you could wish for. I suspect, though, that the bad bits come just before the interesting corners...

I've been doing a bit of travelling for work recently, and have noted an odd and I think statistically unlikely occurrence - on 80% of the flights I've taken, I've been seated next to the wing. The exceptions are on a certain budget airline (no advertising here) who don't pre-allocate seats, where I've been able to grab a spot away from the blind area.

Even given that window seats are only a one in three chance, why can't I ever get a seat away from row 15 or so? Is there some sort of airline database that automagically allocates mid-plane seats to certain people?

OK, on to the excuses, oh sorry - reasons for not posting.

1 - new house (see (much) earlier posts)
2 - new car - OK, it's not really a good reason for not posting, but it is a nice car. Just don't tell the LandRoveristi.
3 - new job. Probably the easiest excuse, it has occupied a lot of my time.
4 - new granddaughter. Rebecca is enough of a good reason to forget computers for a while, and when you add the others - Samantha, Rian and Ross - we have more than enough to be thankful for.

Since things have now reached a more stable state, I'm going to try to keep this up to date a bit more. Not too much - wouldn't want to be accused of trying to supplant the official journalists - but Im going to be far enough behind the times not to be considered a news source.

And don't expect any earth-shattering insights either. What is likely to appear are just comments on local and unimportant events, plus commentary on whatever bike rides I get chance to take this summer. Which, I am assured, is definitely on its way. Well, winter seems to be gone. Well, apart from the snow showers forecast for next Friday. Hmm, think I'm on four wheels for a while longer.

Dammit, I hate it when I spend time composing something and the site times out! The first version of this was a really upbeat explanation of why I hadn't posted anything for several months (OK, it was a feeble excuse really). Then as soon as I hit publish, wait for it, the proxy server tells me "no go".

So, before I re-iterate everyhing again, let's see if this works...