If you ever want to know why I have such a strong interest and opinions about security?

Then this post shows everything that is bad about people in this world …

from the too young child allowed seeming total freedom to do what she wants…

to the father that shouts abuse at a webcam from behind his daughters shoulder…

to the mother that stands off camera and mutters obscenities…

to sites like 4chan and Tumblr that have degraded the usefulness of the internets.

It’s a sad world that brings an 11yr old child to public tears on a youtube video.

The rest I’ll leave up to you to decide.

Nuff said.

What is it with services like Gowalla and foursquare that makes folk spend their days telling the world where they are?

OK if you’re going somewhere interesting and tweeting / sharing something of interest at the same time …

Or maybe you’re using it as a sort of diary tracking your life movements but are keeping it to yourself.

Then I get that.

But I don’t see it that way.

What I see are lots of stuff like this:

John Doe checked in at Some Restaraunt
Yum, breakfast.

Maybe it’s my age but I don’t think so – as a lot of the folks I ‘see’ using this are my age.

• So why?
• Go on, can you sell it to me?
• Do you use it for sensible purposes?

This blog has just completed it’s 2nd full year and I thought it appropriate to share some thoughts.

Those of you that know me from reading here and from Twitter will also know that I’m not in this for the fame or even the fortune. But every blogger wants to know they are being heard.

No matter how small their audience.

We all crave feedback.

I’ve just completed the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog(ger) which is Darren Rowse’s (he of ProBlogger fame) ebook having picked it up to go through the OurChurch.com 31DBBB Project – and I want to publicly thank Paul of OC for his efforts in staging this project.

However, the final day (which was yesterday) co-incided with me thinking (more…)

This post is a request for any assistance I can get.

It’s about a mistake or an oversight when setting up a Windows 2003 server running Active Directory (AD) and DNS. So if you know nothing about these things then please feel free to check out one of my other more regular posts – such as this one.

- o – o – o – o – o – o – o – o – o – o – o – o -

OK, on with the issue.

Please bear in mind that this used to work using a workaround despite the oversight. It stopped working when due to reasons beyond their control our hoster had to put us on another server and hence a different IP, but more on that in a moment. (more…)

I enjoy using twitter, I really do. More than this I love interacting with folks and hopefully getting to know them a little more. I’ve even managed to make a few friends that I would be happy to call upon directly or them me, if needs be but …

… I confess, I really don’t understand what (if indeed anything) I am doing wrong in my usage of twitter.

I took stock of a recent day’s usage and my twitter day consisted of a few RT’s; a few posts of my own thoughts and close on two dozen (I didn’t count that close so it could be more) responses I made to individuals that were of a helpful nature or in a manner to induce a reply or start a conversation.

Now, I accept folks are busy or have a reason to not reply or even don’t see the @’s but then what are they doing on twitter? Anyway, can you guess how many replied, continued the conversation, thanked or even just acknowledged me?

Well, no, it wasn’t quite zero but one!

One person took the effort to respond.

One person took the time to utilise <140 chars to converse with me.

The most stunning aspect (at least to me) is that the one person that did reply is a well known sportsman (in rugby union) and is a man amongst men. He’s a world famous name and probably revered as a god in his own country (New Zealand) – which not unlike mine is fanatical about their rugby. And what’s more, he took time to chat not just reply once.

I’m honoured – but I am thoroughly baffled and confused as to why nobody else could be bothered.

Am I getting it that wrong?

Am I a twitter fail and should just terminate my account?

Any clues folks?

I find the different types of people in this world of ours entirely fascinating.

When I was younger, there was a popular TV series called “Watching” and the basic storyline revolved around a shy boy and his brash on / off girlfriend. A major theme was people watching and it clarified something I have always enjoyed doing. That of trying to categorise folks just by observing them.

(more…)

A good friend sent me this in email – the only change is I’ve edited it to make it more readable on screen. I have seen it before but I think it worth immortalising (sort of) on my blog … and let me add, if you don’t fit the age bracket then don’t get mad but celebrate that we survived!

To Those of  Us  Born  1930 – 1979

No matter what our kids and the new generation think about us,

WE ARE AWESOME !!!!

OUR LIFE IS LIVING PROOF !!!!

At the end of this post is a quote by Jay Leno… If you don’t read anything else, please  read what he said.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE

1930′s, 40′s, 50′s, 60′s and 70′s!!

(more…)

This is a long’ish post but stick with it.

I’ve been AWOL – well not quite true but I have been absent from here for good reason – let me clarify if I can.

For most of my working life (nearly 30yrs) I have had back problems of one sort or another but never anything severe enough to keep me away from work. Worst it got was being uncomfortable and needing to take some ibuprofen (an anti-inflammatory) and perhaps an additional pain killer on top. However, this would be maybe (more…)