The IT Guy

2008 what OS do i Go for

2008-01-13T09:39:00.000-08:00

recently i did the whole lets decide the future of my OS situation this included Linux "multible versions 23 at last count", going MAC, xp 32bit, xp 64 bit, vista ultimate 32bit, and vista ultimate 64bit first off Linux was a No, i Had too much hardware that didnt love linux, and most of my customer base is Not Linux, so going fully linux would = death to my careerHowever It will always be on the table for companys i set up and support them in itMac was off the table even quicker than Linux, because it was too expensive, and certain options are pretty unfamiliar, like how does one get 6 1 terabyte hard drives into a mac, i figured out that if i bought the power user tower that costs way too much i can mod it a little and stick 6 1tb hard drives in it but the costs are way too muchthen windows XP, good ol reliable, well it is now, not very user friendly for newbees, but i tend to set it up so it is, which can take 2 to 4 hours per machine, and has been what i have been doing for years for all my customers, and have only had 1 complaint from a person whos brain was the size of a marble, and equally thickthe prob was more and more games, and newer technologys only run on vista, and 64bit xp is useless for any perfomance boost, especially when i have 4gb of memory in the systemthe end result was lets try a vista 64bit Ultimate, big no no, getting codecs to work, about as simple as trying to nail jello to a wallso after about 8 hours of trying to get shit to work i go to do my vista 32bit thing, far less time to get things working a-Ok, loving the onboard dvd burning software had no problems with it so far, far more efficent than nero, but alas for certain programs I need nero installed Blah, so off i go I install Neroinstant issues with nero, lots of people do have nero issues, with xp, but vista actually tells you its neros fault, i do the updates Nero still very pushybut moving on, after i got it semi sorted, I try out office 2007, awesome, try burning 40 data dvds in a row, No problem did it in 1 3rd the time of nero, and this is still an IDE dvd r/w, did the funky optionsPrettythen bang, a Huge Blow, none of my games work not a single one, eventually figured out that the 7900 and 7950 graphics cards have issues with the latest drivers for vista, so i have to downgrade the graphics to a far older driver then yea i can play team fortress 2, but some of the newer games i am too scared to try, because of there issues with not working at all unless you have the newest Beta DriversLater a week or 2 later, a friend of mine who has made vista dual boot before, had come down to do a dual boot for meend result, 2 dead hard drives, no clue how he did it, but he did, and getting vista back to where i had it, is so painfully long, even more so than how far i get xp to where i use it, or any other O/S so back to XP i goall i can really say about my vista experience if you have all new kit, and bought a good dx10 graphics card, go vistaif you have older pc kit, stay XP64bit avoid all together for a year, on vista, avoid forever on xp unless you dont ever plan to watch movies on your computer if your going to do specific types of work, care nothing for games, and dont need mass amounts of storage, and your neat freak like me, go macif your a rebel go linux, if your a rich rebel, defo go linux Personally the whole Vista Experience reminded me of the time, i got a pc, many years ago, and all you could get was win 2000, me or XP, Me for buget computers, xp for everything else, and 2000 on special order, i stuck with win 98 for 2 more years more than anyone else till the kinks where worked outi feel a similar situation with vista, because unlike people i knew who had xp or vista since day 1, i dont have the time to arse about or putting up with consistent problems

Fight Together Die Alone

2007-11-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

Fight Together Die Alone

is this a topic about war, or business to be honest it can be either or

Recently I have applied to another American Firm in Scotland, and being the third to help me to come to the relization, there is not a great chance of me getting me a Job

currently I am applying for technical support jobs in glasgow and edinburgh, and In interviews I get asked some rather dumb questions, some questions have no point, others your not allowed to ask in this country and others have no revelence to the job

for those who know me well, know that a Tech Support job is the lowest paid job i can do and earnings should start at 18k per year, with 2 weeks holiday

the highest paying job i can apply for is IT Support Manager which earnings start at 21k + depending on how long i have done the job before

I have three years in my belt so 25k is not unresonable

but yet i am happy with 16k jobs so long as i can afford to move to glasgow or edinburgh

but because like i said previously people pushing the wages the it people in glasgow down, the pay i am being offered is 12k

YET I go to interviews with people with less technical knowlege repair and installation experience than me

people who just say "We buy dell" "coz its cheap"

which it aint, i understand the many valid view points to go dell, but you still need a good IT Support on site, I worked for dell i Have seen there standards

and the excuses for not hiring me are, "he does not have 20 years experience in server 2003 like our manager"

christ stupid people are everywhere

I remmber trying to get a group of people together to start a business "Numerous times" if 6 students in scotland worked part time, they could start a successfull business in there spare hours within 6 months

if you have a big enougth product and there willing to do it without pay for a year, then a medium scare business is quite easy

but so many dont trust anyone, or no one is willing to lead, and nothing gets done, anytime i tried to lead people resent me

so starting my own business is slim to difficult, and getting employment with some of these firms is also the same

I find the whole concept of business has become parasitical, are we all becoming part of walmart by default

finally would you spend close to 6 years in a higher education, uni college, to work in a mcdonalds, because the pay and hours are better than working for some firm, with the IT knowlege that is outdated so much that there head of IT has to lie about there so called "20 years of experience in 2003"

for those of you who dont get it, server 2003 has only been out for a few years, and server 2000, what 7 years in total not even 10

Lost Skills & Lost Talents & Lost Independence

2007-11-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

As you see above are three pics whichI am going to explain shortly, Now I want to talk about scotland, Employment and Education,when I was talking to people about these items they had no idea what they were, what they were used for, or how the were used

Being I have been in the Unfortunite position to be part of the FULL "job Seekers" treatment and have attended two colleges, two univercitys, worked for several companys in three diffrent classifications both in sacture and policy there is a few things I can tell you about the system and the people in and around it.

The unfortunite truth is, scotland, england, Ireland Wales, just like the rest of the world, is full of idiots

there is very little learned in High school, and even less that is usefull, or practical each year more and more old skills we need are cut out, and new skills simplified.

mind you is addededucation was suppost to be diverse, if the spent all that money maintaining a good standard, and widening the amount to learn, and just EXTENDING THE AMOUNT OF TIME TO DO IT, then perhaps we would have more intelligent people in this world

After leaving unvercity with the job and education experience to get a 23k a year job, "especially since i worked a 21k job for 3 Years" because the quality of IT people in glasgow has become so drastically low, the going rate is 12k, thats right ladies and gents an IT person is now as underpaid as a worker at mcdonalds even more so even.

also the demand for certain qualfictions "CORPORATE QUALIFICATIONS" that only last a set amount of time before expiring, and can cost as much as a full years wage to do 2k for MCP course, 5k for mcsa course, 1.2k for A+ qualifcation.

Now some of you may think these are great qualifications but in reality there useless

A+ is a level of education i got at standard grade computing the lowest of the low, nowadays a lot of the questions are no longer relavent, and if you can tell the diffrence between one type of printer and another, then chances are you know enougth to pass, one question was why your not suppost to clean the ball in a mouse with oil based lubricantes.

yes questions that stupid

MCP is equally as dumb, as its basically the "HOW TO GUIDE FOR WINDOWS XP" yup yup Pointy Pointless with a extra large P on top

and MCSA is the same as MCSA but for Windows server 2003, again if you used windows server 2003 for any length of time its pretty standard in your brain

But during my travels i still meet grown adults with no idea what they want to do job wise, but know nothing of anything, so how do they know what they want to do if they dont know anything

they dont know history, they dont know any more than 1 religion, they dont know about other countrys and back to those pic's they know nothing about a number of old skills or trades

for example the first pic is of a quail, a Delicay to be eaten, who's eggs make a great side dish or part of a 1st class meal

the second pic is of a Wet Stone, and by the way I have asked this numerous times and guess what 0, I repeat almost no one I asked knew what it was, only when I asked a guy due for a dirt nap did i get a correct answer

a Wet stone is a sharpening stone to sharpen knives and bladed tools etc a concept which no one seemed to understood when i explained it to them

and finally the one where i got some answers, which made me want to cringe in terror one being a Microphone

the last one is a morse code Key, I could have picked Steam Engineering, and various masonary and wielding methods that are in short supply, some so short there is no one to teach let alone any pupils, yet the demand for these type of employees are marginally high in some areas, or a knowledge of it is, required

but for people to know if they want to learn it, they have to go on a course, how can one become an accoutant without doing an accountants course, how does one know they want to be a nurse unless they have been helping one.

sure money is a motavation for most, but what about simply being happy and fufilling a need

Blah maybe im just too logical for an illogical world

yep in this country if your unemployed for 6 months you get put on a placment which they then sign you to being "employed" which to clarify you are not, but to continue to receive benefits or your minor job seekers allowance, you have to do about 30 hours of work at this placment with only £30 quid over your current jobseekers allowance totalling less than £150 per 2 weeks,

this allows the goverment to say employment is up when its not, and be honest who can live on £150 per two weeks, its £50 for council tax per month, £600+ on bills per year just for lights heating and that 1 tv

what about travel money, food drink, by army standards the nutrition of a pot noodle is ok, but should not be eaten in excess for long periods of time over 1 month and psychogists have proven such eating habits will lead to social depression, manic depression, and emotional unstabilitys its not exactly part of high school training to hunt for food, and what is there to hunt ? rats? cats? neds"chavs" ?

yep i am sure our goverment is pro cannablisum

Take My Advice or Dont Ask For it

2007-11-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

Every So often someone would ask me for computer advice

Personal Recommendations, recommended computers, Recommended Brands, Recommended Printers, Scanners

More Often and quite often to the point of great stress to myself, the ladies and gents in my life dont like my Advice

There is no single perfect answer, no such thing as a perfect answer without cost or doing somthing, This is somthing people dont seem to understand, there is no such thing as a small cheap reliabile, quiet, power full pc, with decent accesories from one manufacturer with decent warrentys and support

NO SUCH BRAND EXISTS

TV the TV SPEAKS

2007-10-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

for those of you who know me, I loath television

I got more channels than sense, but I never watch them, but yet I still watch shows and movies but people would often say "you are still watching tv then ?"

and heres what I do, instead of watching the cable the satalite even the standard channels, which i pay for all year

Or struggle to fit in a particular hour for that 1 gleaming show I want to watch I simply download it

saves soo much bother plus the added bonus, no channel hoping to mindless opera based shows, no adverts

how many people get depressed, annoyed or plain uncomfortable when they see kids adverts or adverts with old people drinking cola and riding skateboards, or the usual give money to such and such a cause

Let me count oh 1, 2,3, 12, 36 yep a lot of peeps seem to dislike them more than me

I feel of late there is a good deal of good shows yet we also have more rubbish on tv than ever before that people prefer to watch

I watch Dexter they watch Pop Idol
I watch Lost they watch Opera
I watch L word they watch Touched By an Angel
I watch Heroes they watch Eastenders

the list goes on and on and on

but seriously would YOU prefer to watch Eastenders with there depressing outlook on life, or captivating show with an actual plot

dont get me wrong trash tv is trash tv, and i love my trash tv, but most of the trash tv, is not even up to any standard

the pop idol and there 12 spin off's or so are Painfull at best, anytime i see the roommates watch it i FLEEE with my dinner to the other room

Opera and the other talk shows are the bane of my existance, and the existance of chubby folk everywhere, never has a show given bad advice to the mass's

and again the list goes on

I am so inclined to make a list of shows i consider worthy of someones time and why

Lesbains Computers and why I hate Budget Homebuilt PC's

2007-10-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

Back a Few years ago a friend of mine "charlene" and her girlfriend "Teri" asked me, "dear aramis build us a pc"
we need it for work, so against my recommendations and without consulting Teri fully with my recommendations she went with the uber budget pc

Now ladies and gents, and to all those of you who "cheap out" as i call it, spending that £100 less can cost you dearly a poor power supply saves you £30 to £50 but if it explodes "which cheap ones have a habit of doing" then well it could cost you a lot more than £100 you initially cut out of your budget

it has been 3 years since they bought that pc for £300, and i have spent an additional £60 on repairs "my gift to them" and i had to reduce the memory, and it still works pretty poorly and charlene has since left her now x girlfriend with the computer and the initial bill, how so nice of her

Though i feel Teri took it out of guilt, it has been handy to her but It still underperforms

being as they were both close friends i gave the pc "at no cost, pay later encase your wondering" but now recently I have decided to completely replace the budget crap components, coz i feel Teri should not get the Computer Pains from the decision of her now X Girlfriend

More so since I am more close friends with Teri and disasociate away from charlene "my choice" I decided for a early Christmas gift i will turn Teri's crappy sempron 1.6ghz with a tiny amount of rubbish memory and a ok 200gb maxtor hard drive into

a athalon 3200 2.ghz with a new asus motherboard, and 1gb of ocz memory and a full media centre setup along with a 320gb western digital sata

but i feel compelled to keep the old case, maybe im feeling sentimental in my old age

some of you may wonder whoah powerful pc "filled with sarcasm" but considering the low spec it was before it is a far better upgrade, along with reliable parts, not to mention free

and lets be honest who needs a more powerful pc for work and movies than this ?

But if this was a server for a company or someones vital work pc, it would be under performing, have more down time than should ever be acceptible, 5 reinstalls and finally no less than 30 painfull hours of my life

think about it this way, if they were not my friends thats £15.00 per hour or £150 per job, or £90 per reinstall

talk about some serious doh