Captain Support and Outlook.com…

This morning I was called because my mom’s email wasn’t working. As usual, no clear explanation of the issue was available. This sounds like a job for Captain Support!  The problem turned out to be Microsoft had switched her from the Hotmail interface to the Outlook.com interface. A quick explanation of the new interface and she bravely decided to stick with it, rather than switching back to the original Hotmail interface. I’m sure Captain Support will be needed a few times in the coming days… 🙂

I’ve mentioned before, I think the Outlook.com interface is probably the neatest looking web mail interface around now. I prefer the look of it to Gmail. The problem is I am so invested in the Google ecosystem I couldn’t switch even if I wanted too. The real issue here is I’m not a normal user. There are a lot of users out there like my mom who are completely stumped by the slightest change to the interface. At one point my mom said she felt like getting rid of the computer. To someone like me that seems like an extreme reaction, but for her the computer had become unusable.

What’s she going to think when she gets Windows 8? 🙂

On that subject, a couple of people in the office are now using Windows 8 at home and it’s not proving too bad. One of the guys is running it native. One is using Classic Shell. Not surprisingly, they spend most of their time in the desktop pain, trying to avoid the interface formerly known as Metro. Resistance is futile…

Cheers

Tim…

RHCE Certification Articles…

Just before I started my current job I was planning on doing the RHCSA and RHCE exams for a bit of fun. In preparation for that I started to write the revision notes for each of the exam objectives. I got to the end of the RHCSA exam objectives, then my plan kind-of stalled, what with starting the new job etc.

Over the Christmas holiday I got some time to start the notes for the RHCE exam. If anything, the syllabus for this exam is a little simpler as many of the sections follow the same basic format. This full list of RHCE exam objectives includes the links to all the articles I’ve written to cover the objectives. There are still 5 to complete, but hopefully I’ll get those done soon.

The new articles I wrote include:

Some of the existing articles on the site got some changes to reflect other objectives, including:

Remember, these articles are targeted specifically at the exam objectives, rather than trying to provide everything you need to know about the subject. In my opinion, some of the exam objectives are rather too simple, missing out the more interesting and useful features of the software. In some cases I’ve added some extra information beyond the objectives, marking it as not part of the exam, or linked or other articles that give some ideas of other uses.

Once I finish the next batch of articles, I guess I should consider sitting the exams. I’m pretty confident I could get through them now if I had access to my notes, but in the exam you just have “man”  and “info” pages, so I would have to commit some of the stuff to memory to get through them. Although I’ve been using Linux for over a decade, the fact I don’t do system administration on a daily basis means some of the more obscure tasks aren’t committed to memory.

It would be nice to get the articles finished and exams done before Oracle 12c is released, or I will be distracted for a while learning all that stuff. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Nexus 4 : Broken Back Panel (Final Update)…

Today I received a case for my Nexus 4. I got this case for £2.90 from Amazon along with free delivery. It came with a screen protector and polish cloth. 🙂

I put some sellotape over the shattered glass on the back, but couldn’t be bothered to tape over all the radiating cracks, since they are not shedding glass shards. I put the phone into the case and I’m now going to try my best to forget that LG (and Google by association) are a bunch of asses over the design of the back panel of this phone.

From a functional perspective, it’s hard to tell the phone apart from the Nexus 7 tablet, so I have no gripes in that respect. My rantings have purely been about the terrible choice of materials for the back panel.

Cheers

Tim…

 

Nexus 4 : Update from LG over broken back panel…

I just got off the phone to LG about this piece of crap Nexus 4 phone. Their response is physical damage is not their responsibility, so I will have to pay for a repair. I suggested that designing a phone that will shatter when it is placed on a room temperature surface (yes, that really has happened to people) constitutes a design flaw and they should repair it for free. After much whining on my part their stance is unchanged at this time. I guess if enough people contact them to complain they will have to take responsibility…. Maybe…

So if you end up getting one of these super-fragile phones, please save yourself a lot of grief and buy a case that covers the back completely. It’s the only way you are going to make it past a week without breaking it.

If the back panel does shatter, you have to phone LG. They will send you a letter telling you where to send your phone to get a quote for the repair. If you accept the quote they will fix it and send it back to you. If you don’t accept the quote they will charge to £20 and send the phone back to you. Sounds like something in excess of a week without a phone to me and no idea of what you are going to be charged before you do it. 🙁

I think I’m just going to accept the fact it is broken and cover it with a case to stop little shards of glass digging into my hand. Once Google and LG are shamed into admitting this design is crap, maybe I will get it repaired for free.

Tim…

Nexus 4 : Crappy Design…

I had a HTC Wildfire for 2 years without any problems. Now, 2 days after posting about getting a Nexus 4, the glass on the back panel is broken. I hadn’t even taken off the protective sheets yet.

The design of this back panel is a complete pile of shit! Why would you possible want to put unnecessary glass on a mobile device? It’s asking for trouble. It seems I’m not the only one, as seen here and here.

I’m not sure what to do now. I guess I better contact Google and see how I can get it repaired, or cover my hands in plasters to prevent the little shards of glass it is dropping from slicing my fingers to pieces.

What a total pile of crap! LG, you have failed. Google, you have failed.

The moral of this story is one of the following:

  • If you want a Nexus 4, keep it at home in a presentation case or it will break like a crappy piece of shit.
  • If you want a Nexus 4 and feel like taking it out of the house, make sure you wrap it up in cushions and pillows or one of those nasty-ass bumpers that make it look damn ugly, but less breakable.
  • Don’t get a Nexus 4, get a Samsung S3.

Cheers

Tim…

Nexus 4…

I accidentally bought a Nexus 4…

I had been thinking about getting a new phone for some time and the talk of the Nexus 4 peaked my interest. Even so, I’m one of those rare people that prefers a small phone and typically uses a mobile phone as just a phone. I always have a computer and tablet with me, so a smart phone is rarely useful to me.

The accident happened when I checked out the Nexus 4 online and it was sold out. I put my name down to be notified when it came back in stock, just for the hell of it. A couple of weeks later I got an email saying it was now available. Before I knew it I frantically opened a browser and placed an order, for fear it would sell out again. Only after I hit submit did I stop to consider whether I actually need a smartphone…

So yesterday it turned up. I chopped up my sim to make it into a micro-sim and put it in the phone. After logging into my Google account, the phone churned away for a few minutes and I was left with a new phone with all the same apps as my Nexus 7. It was at that point I got kinda bored with it.

My apathy is nothing to do with the phone itself. It’s amazing. It’s just I’ve been using the Nexus 7 for a while now and the Nexus 4 is just a smaller tablet that happens to have a phone built in. It’s not exactly new to me, if you see what I mean.

I guess one of two things will happen next. Either I will hardly ever use the device and keep reaching for my Nexus 7, or I will use the Nexus 7 a little less often and use the phone a bit more.

I joked on twitter that I should buy a Nexus 10 and a Chromebook to prove I don’t need those either… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

PS. My next visit to airport security is going to be funny. Laptop, tablet, bit phone, kindle, external hard drive etc.

Forum Spam…

My Forum is being hit really hard by the spammers again. It seems to happen for a few days every month, then they get bored and move on. To give myself a break from constantly deleting spam I’ve turned off new member sign up for a while. Existing member can carry on posting, but at the moment no new members will be allowed. I’m guessing very soon they’ll get the message and jog on.

I’m feeling very uncharitable at the moment. Thinking that the death penalty for spammers seems kinda reasonable…

Cheers

Tim…

Power Loss and Database Recovery…

About a week ago we had a big power outage at work. What with UPS and generators, most systems coped fine, but one system didn’t fair so well…

One of the mount points, and some of the data files within it, got corrupted and the Solaris container holding the database decided to repeatedly bounce between nodes. After a few days work on the part of the sysadmins, including a file system restore to repair the Oracle software installation, the server was given back to me.

A DBVerify showed there were loads of block corruptions in the data files, so I did a full restore and recovery of the database. The app was released for testing to the users this morning. A little before midday we had another power outage, even more severe than the previous one. Some of the UPS had not fully recharged since the last outage…

We will not get power restored until this evening. Everyone has an early start planned tomorrow. We have no idea what we are walking in to though!

The moral of this story is always have a good DR strategy!

Fun, fun, fun…

Cheers

Tim…

PS. The other DBA is on holiday this week. LOL.

Update: The DB was mangled again so we had to restore it again. 🙁