As you read this I will have finished work 3hrs ago, be on the road and fast asleep and I won’t be back for 9 days. Well at least that’s the good lady’s plan.

I have to go home, have some breakfast (or in my case dinner), hitch up the caravan, have a shower and then climb into the passenger seat and allow my family to lull me to sleep. I’m really looking forward to the break and the time to spend with my family but if I’m 100% honest I’m not looking forward to where we are going. (more…)

Well just a little …

Last week I wrote about my lack of exercise basically causing me to put on weight. In it I stated that I can’t shed my excess weight by dieting because I don’t overeat and nor do I eat badly. For sure I have blowouts and there are times I eat too much – but as with all things, in moderation.

My problem is my lack of exercise to burn off the calories – so I started on the 100 PushUps Challenge. So far I’ve spoken about it with those in my close circle of friends and my work colleagues. Most think I’m insane, some have been inspired themselves and some are amazed. None more so than me. (more…)

I was in the Church yesterday showing something to my son when the pastor asked if he could have 5 minutes of my time.

I don’t know about you and your pastors, but it’s never just 5 with mine! Anyway, he says to me “if we had the money, what is your wish list within IT?” Well wow, I wasn’t expecting that. So there then ensued a manic few minutes whilst I came up with suggestions – but because I’ve got used to not expecting anything it has also got me into the habit of not thinking, or wishing, for what I’d want.

All said and done, the first words out of my mouth were “it’s not just IT I’m concerned with, however…” and then I ran off my top 4 needs, which for your delectation are:

• sort out the network cabling / move central kit to secure room
• memory upgrades for all Church PC’s
• get a vendor supported hardware appliance firewall
• setup wi-fi for Church / Visitor / locals

The pastor then added that just because he’s added them to the budget it doesn’t mean they will happen, but if they are there it is more likely that they will. What this has (re)taught me is to always be prepared and to stop my negative thinking in terms of my Church’s UT / Media spending.

This, thankfully, doesn’t affect me or anything I look after.

However, I imagine that some of the larger Churches out there will be running their own DNS systems that are likely to be affected. Long and short, whether your DNS is Unix, MS or some other variant you need to patch it and now.

For those, like me, whom want the details then go here:

http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/800113 or

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-037.mspx

If you want some background info, then take a wander over to Arbor Networks take on it or even go and hear from the man behind DNS, Paul Mockapetris, over at Network World which may require you to create a free account before reading.

I’ve been reading Jason Powell’s blog for a while now and have finally, after reading some back posts, become convinced that I need to do something about my weight and general lack of fitness.

At the grand young age of 44 I don’t feel unfit but there are times I can’t do what I want and there are certainly times when my two youngest want me to play more than I physically can. But because I do a lot of walking and because (or so I keep convincing myself) I’m not doing too badly I’ve put off any form of serious exercise. (more…)

I’m likely to be a little quiet on here over the next three weeks or so – but didn’t want my silence to be mis-read as this blog having stopped. Far from it.

So why the silence – three main reasons:

• Family holiday(s)
• Faith Camp
• Launch of our eCommerce site

The first is fairly obvious but half of it will be spent at Faith Camp 08 with the second half on the South coast of the UK – unfortunately I won’t be joining the family on the second week as I’m back in work.

Item 2 is more than just a holiday – it’s likley to be a working holiday. As I may have mentioned before the Church has a thriving business importing Christian books to distribute in the UK and this year we also have the contract to sell books and bits at Faith Camp. Currently the Church is gearing up for this and I have a part to play in needing to config some machines. Whilst there, any tech hitches will come my way as well.

Lastly, our eCommerce site should have gone live last week with a fall back date of yesterday. It didn’t happen! So I’m currently in talks with the developer trying to understand and trying to encourage him personally and trying to get him to complete it, whilst giving him the love and leeway needed. Watch this space – I now trust it will go live August 9th or so and when it does you can be sure I’ll post about it here.

All that said – I will be checking my eMails fairly regular.

I work shifts.

I’ve been told they are called “Continentals” but I have no idea why. In short I do 4x12hr shifts of 2 days then 2 nights. I then get 4 days off (bar a few hours for recovery) and this naturally leads to not seeing friends or being able to attend Church for a few weeks at a stretch due to the 8 day nature of the shift rotation. I’m cool with this and so are the family. (more…)

I’ve just signed up to Zyb.com and within 5 minutes I’d confirmed my ID, confirmed my phone, backed up, edited and re-synced the changes back to my phone.

If like me you are constantly changing your phones or adding / deleting contacts then I think** you’ll find this a much easier way to store and manage your phone contacts. It also allows for access to your numbers should you forget, lose of have your phone stolen.

To my quick glance it also appears to support most modern phones and networks.

** ^{Unless you are a confirmed keypad guru}