blogs.bit10.net

I am back! My blog is migrated to new servers, happy days. To kick off 3 things which have very much impressed me in the last couple of months: 1) Windows 7 RC. Microsoft have an absolute win here, its faster and feels tidier than Vista, the search is lightening quick, the new combined launch/taskbar kicks ass, [...]

I have just been trying to get VM Server 2 installed on my new Vista Ultimate 64 installation, and found I just couldn’t logon using either my own Vista username and password or the administrator one, lots of googling revealed all sorts of people having the same problem. The error message you get when trying to [...]

I am sure I am (as usual) the last person on the planet to know about this, but www.splityourticket.co.uk basically works out for you the cheapest way to buy a train ticket. So in a nutshell on our standard Virgin trains Coventry to London peak return, which if you buy on the day (and I always [...]

As 2008 winds to a close, I am reflecting on what an brilliant year it has been, if 2009 is as good I will be a happy chappy, here are some of the highlights and lowlights of my year: Moved into my new house in sunny Earlsdon. Completed lots of work on the house - still much [...]

Steve and I recently popped over to the Netherlands to deploy Vyatta for a Dutch IT services company ‘Danego‘, Danego do a lot of managed hosting for their clients, and retained us to deploy Vyatta. They are using Vyatta for: BGP Endpoints - one for each of their two upstream providers. External firewalling. Internal subnetting and routing ’router on a stick’ [...]

I have just discovered I have been bitten by the 0845 rip-off. My Orange bill arrived and despite me have 1200 inclusive minutes (nowhere near used), I still had an hours worth of calls ‘outside minutes’. This then transpired to be 0845 numbers, one of which cost me £2.81+VAT for 17 minutes… So called ‘local rate’ [...]

So finally the dense powers that be have realised that a fixed annual license to download whatever you want is a good idea: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2008/07/24/dldownloads124.xml Really they should put me in charge, as I first suggested it here - http://www.benking.me.uk/2008/01/11/drm-copyright-the-saga-goes-on/  Even so it is still being reported as a ‘bad thing’ i.e. naughty people will get taxed/fined £30… Get [...]

I have in the past posted about my experience when I got my Hotmail account hacked and how I subsequently recovered it. To save everyone the hassle of wading through my blog for the answer (and earn me a few quid hopefully), I have now written a handy document that helps you understand: 1) Why and [...]

After our first food fail and followup discussion with the Pizza Express operations manager, Debbie Phillips, I thought that maybe we had the issue resolved. Last Tuesday evening we went back to test the theory. The first failure came early in the day when Jake popped in to check what time they were shutting that evening (their website says 10.30pm), Jake [...]

Last night we decided to have a cheeky Chinese take away. Our usual take away, the Ruby House, is shut on Mondays so had to find another. We decided on trying the ‘Net Mayflower Chinese Restaurant’ in Cheylesmore, it used to be okay a few years back, it isn’t anymore. We ordered: Crispy Chicken in Chilli Barbeque Spare Ribs [...]

So the other day I had a hangover, a bad one. So I twittered about how Beroccca came to my rescue. Anyway Outside Line, the digital agency responsible for Beroccas online marketing contacted me, basically they have a special Berocca bloggers relief pack, which you can get yourself at this special microsite: http://www.berocca.co.uk/bloggerrelief Clever stuff Berocca/Outside Line, I [...]

Wednesday Evening 10pm, 5 of us very hungry, so we decide to go for a quick Pizza Express. We walk into Pizza Express, Coventry and its pretty full, all the staff are still on serving, and we ask for a table for 5, the girl serving us looked concerned and ran off upstairs to ask her manager. She [...]

So two weeks ago I ordered a new Samsung LCD TV from RGB Direct (http://www.rgbdirect.co.uk). I should have known better when the onerous ordering system forced me to supply home phone and mobile before continuing (My only home phone line is for ADSL and fax), but I ploughed on. I selected the free delivery because although it [...]

I have deployed Vyatta to a lot of different locations, however the deployment I did last week was a little different… Yas Island is a naturual island on the coast of the United Arab Emirates of about 2,500 hectares or which 1,700 hectares is being developed. It is to be a $40 billion playground of marinas, shops, theme park, water park, [...]

<rant>  I live in Coventry, which is as near as damnit slap bang in the middle of the UK, and within spitting distance of our second city, Birmingham, given this fact why is it soo damn difficult to get to the UKs biggest airport (Heathrow) on public transport?! Normally when I fly its always easier and quicker to [...]

Prego’s Italian Restaurant, Beach Rotana Hotel, Abu Dhabi, dinner and drinks for three… 666.00 UAD… How scary is that?!

The next major release of Vyatta (VC4 - codename Glendale) is due for final release on 22nd April, and I am soo excited! This release promises to deliver plethora of new features and functionality, including: 1) FusionCLI - A new CLI based around bash that gives simultaneous access to Vyatta configuration and the underlying Linux shell. Woohoo [...]

When you connect to the Internet in China you don’t get the real Internet you get a government controlled version, which limits access to sites that are offensive to/or go against the political views of the Chinese government. This is known as the Golden Shield Project or by its lovable nickname, ‘The Great Firewall of [...]

…is the question I am asking myself right now… I am in Shanghai, a city of some 18 million people, the biggest city in China and in the top 5 largest in the world, the answer should be obvious. However, here I am sat in Starbucks (one of two in this building alone, an one of five that [...]

Or “Congratulations and be prosperous” as Chinese New Year is almost upon us.  However it is also the day not to be buying new shoes as this is considered bad luck amongst some Chinese. The word “shoes” is a homophone for the word “rough” in Cantonese, or “evil” in Mandarin.   So I will resist the [...]