Rhymes With Geek

Any talk of Google's Android "killing" the iPhone seems premature.

Robert Moir — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:56:53 GMT

I'm going to pick on just one or two articles and snark them to death here, because I'm mean like that in a rush, but there are quite a few similar pieces out there which I could just as easily hang this article from. For those of you who have been busy doing other things besides worry about what goes inside your cellphone, you may be bored to hear that Google are releasing a product known as "Android", which has been positioned by more than a few people as an "iPhone killer"...(read more)

Some people are easily pleased

Robert Moir — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:27:22 GMT

Just found Ed Bott's report of the "crapware" free laptop that Sony have given him to review (thanks to John Gruber/ Daring Fireball ). I'm glad for Ed that he's so happy, and this is certainly a big improvement over the last time he got down deep with a Sony laptop, but I've got to ask: Doesn't Ed seem absurdly grateful when you consider that what he's basically doing is thanking Sony for deigning to stop being quite so obvious about violating customers? Don't...(read more)

New Buildings and Apologies

Robert Moir — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:02:27 GMT

In the grand tradition of this blog, I need to apologise for not posting again. I don't have much of a defence, except that I've been very busy at work for reasons that I can now talk about: My employer has finally received all the confirmations, funding and planning permission we need in order to start building an entirely new campus which should be finished in 2010. I am delighted to finally be able to talk about this in detail - while it's hardly been a secret that we've been planning...(read more)

Samsung Instinct appears to be full of fail

Robert Moir — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:17:22 GMT

Coming from a snark on John Gruber's site about Samsung's instinct going head to head with the iPhone in a hundred million dollar advertising campaign, I find the Gizmodo article with videos of the two phones side by side. And I have to say what the hell are they smoking in Sprint and Samsung too for that matter ? Maybe I've misunderstood this, but the selling points of the Samsung Instinct are that it has 3G and GPS built in. Like the next version of the iPhone which is supposed to be...(read more)

Round-up

Robert Moir — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:24:00 GMT

I just wanted to quickly gather up some links to articles I've found interesting of late. First of all, Claus Valca has some great posts over on Grand Stream Dreams. I want to draw your attention to a link roundup and comments post Claus made a week or so ago because of some interesting stuff he's found around Firefox and the implications of how it pre-fetches content ( This Week in Firefox Tips (Tinfoil Hats optional but stylish , towards the bottom of the article). If you use Firefox this...(read more)

Building a Media Centre

Robert Moir — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:46:41 GMT

As anyone who takes even a cursory glance at this site will know, I've been critical of Windows Vista for a very long time ( way before it became fashionable to bash it! Who says I'm not a trendsetter?). With Service Pack One being released I thought it was time for another decent trial. Building "Brandine" So rooting around in my box of spare computer bits, I realised I had enough spare parts to build a new computer, with the exception of a case and motherboard. All the computers...(read more)

Windows XP SP3 - What I've found so far

Robert Moir — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:13:07 GMT

Just some quick notes on what I've noticed, or been told by people I trust, about XP SP3 so far. My own experiences are based on a clean install at home and a few test upgrades at work (ah the benefits of being paid to do R&D). What XP Service Pack 3 is - and is not. Windows XP SP3 is a collection of hotfixes and patches that are rolled up into one giant patch for Windows XP. Unlike SP2, SP3 does not make substantial changes to the way Windows XP works and does not add a lot of new features...(read more)

Windows XP SP3: Pretty damn good actually. Windows Live Installer: Sucks like a vacuum.

Robert Moir — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:21:00 GMT

I was originally going to base the title on The Scorpions' " Rock You Like a Hurricane " but then I realised that "suck you" was open to all kinds of misinterpretation and wouldn't end well. Still on with what I really wanted to say. I've just done a clean rebuild of my XP desktop machine, partly because it hadn't been done for about 2 years and was due, and partly because I wanted to install XP Service Pack 3 now it's been released. So XP SP3 installs very...(read more)

In the Meh-sh

Robert Moir — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:43:00 GMT

So it seems the fruits of Ray Ozzie's labour at Microsoft are starting to appear in public at last. And I for one say "Your point being...?" I'd love to link to their blog at this point to let them explain it, but it seems that their .live.com server is knackered at the moment. Bodes well for the mesh service doesn't it? Apparently it's a platform that is designed to put me at the centre of my digital world. Oh good. I thought I was already at their centre, what with them...(read more)

You know what would be even faster?

Robert Moir — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:02:00 GMT

I found this post on Lifehacker via Kurt Wismer , someone whose comments I've kept an eye on for since I started reading the alt.comp.virus newsgroup, which is quite a time ago now. Kurt seems to have the habit of annoying people by simply speaking the truth as he sees it and not spending too much time and effort on sugar-coating. I'd personally consider that an asset in people who are there to talk about security but many people still seem to blame the messenger when someone points out the...(read more)

Exchange 2007 SP1 migration: Troubleshooting OWA issues

Robert Moir — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:28:00 GMT

I'm going to make a note of issues I've encountered with the Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 migration at work, and which didn't have immediately obvious solutions. It's been far too long since I posted anything that wasn't a thinly (or not so thinly) disguised rant about some aspect of IT that I'm vexed at. After migrating a mailbox to Exchange 2007 SP1 from Exchange 2003, the user attempts to access their mailbox via Outlook Web Access and gets redirected to the correct URL...(read more)

Just because you're used to an abusive relationship, it doesn't make it OK.

Robert Moir — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:23:00 GMT

I have to admit that some areas of the computer industry make me asahmed to be part of the IT profession at times. Take gaming - 1up.com's article on 5 botched game launches talks about Steam ... Yes, yes, we all love Steam now. By which we mean "It hasn't gone away yet, and people won't visit our site if we don't talk about Valve". It's the model of digital distribution and community management in PC gaming right now By which we mean "We're high." utterly...(read more)

FDisk is back, now with a GUI interface.

Robert Moir — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:06:00 GMT

Microsoft have released a new tool to render your Vista installation (even more) unusable and hence prod you into moving back to XP or buying a Mac. More info here . I'd love to give a serious review but the laptop we use at work to test Vista / simulate a "home user" accessing our services remotely crashed while downloading Vista SP1. There's a certain amount of irony in Vista being so unreliable at times that you can't even get it to hold still long enough to fix it. As ever...(read more)

iPhone to support Exchange ActiveSync

Robert Moir — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:28:00 GMT

Apple have today announced that along with their SDK to allow developers to produce 3rd party apps for the iPhone they have also been working on support for Exchange server. How about that, I guess I was right . Doesn't the list of things Phil Schiller produces for an Enterprise iPhone sound a lot like the laundry list of device management policy options in Exchange 2007? Never mind, I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Let's be honest here, the iPhone has been a roaring success just...(read more)

Netscape Navigator to die (again?) on Feb 1st 2008.

Robert Moir — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:37:00 GMT

Ah the death of Netscape. I remember it well and I guess I'll miss it, a large part of computer history and my own too I guess, so goodbye and thankyou Netscape Navigator. Just finished reading this blog post on wired that reports that Netscape Navigator is to fold it's tent and slip into the night early next year and I have to admit I'm not quite sure how I feel. Some of the people who worked on it are glad it's going away and who am I to argue with that though I guess. One big issue...(read more)

More Interview Tips

Robert Moir — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:53:00 GMT

As a long overdue follow-up to my interview tips article from 2006 (yes, I said it was an overdue follow-up, heh) I'm going to address some of the most common points and questions that have come up since then. Some of these are based on comments I've made elsewhere but I'm dragging it all together in one place now. I don't believe in 'get the job at any cost' That's why I don't make lists of magic phrases to use in interviews, or things like that. My approach is more...(read more)

Internet Explorer 8 announced. No one appears to care.

Robert Moir — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:16:00 GMT

So with great fanfare*cough*, Microsoft have announced the next version of their web browser , which will be Internet Explorer 8. Didn't see that one coming! Dean Hachamovitch, manager of the IE team, has some fun with 'alternative' names in the IE Team blog post I've linked to above, and asked us not to "mistake silence for inaction". You've got a point Dean, but perhaps you might try looking at it from our point of view. You know, how customers see things? You remember...(read more)

Waiting to switch...

Robert Moir — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:39:00 GMT

Glenn Wolsey posted today about his experiences with migrating from a desktop machine to a MacBook Pro and how it's caused him to re-think his storage strategy. This got me thinking about my own computers and storage needs. I'm actually very happy with my MacBook even if it isn't a 'pro'. Every time I use it I compare it to the many other brands of laptop I use at work and it confirms to me that whatever else you might think about Apple they make some of the best laptops I've...(read more)

Boycott Mac Heist. It really is that simple.

Robert Moir — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:29:00 GMT

As if they didn't already have a bit of a reputation in some parts, it seems the people behind MacHeist have really decided to sink as low as they can this year. If you're involved with MacHeist in any way, I'd like to take a moment to thank you. I wondered if you were all as big a bunch of tossers as I suspected and you have now removed any doubt in my mind. So thanks. To anyone else who owns a Mac: Please don't have anything to do with Mac Heist. Here's why... It appears that...(read more)

I can has Leopard upgrade?

Robert Moir — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:41:00 GMT

I'm sure it'll come as no shock to regular visitors here to learn that I've upgraded to Leopard today. Will it last as long as my Vista install? Place your bets now! The Leopard install took about 30 or 40 mins with the "archive" install option, which tells OS X to archive away your old OS install and app folders, create a clean install and then import your applications, documents, and user settings into the new OS. Based on my experiences with the Panther -> Tiger upgrades...(read more)

PCWorld.com for Business? Forget it.

Captain Obvious — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:30:00 GMT

Ok, the Captain has to comment on this article , discovered through daring fireball . No wait, that link is dead because the author of the article decided to issue some kind of correction . For months now, you've barely been able to pop open a web browser without spotting a few iPhone stories raving about the fact that it only does what it says it does. That could spell trouble for journalists who are unable to read and IT Managers who believe the opinions of apparently brain-dead journalists...(read more)

There's a serious point in here somewhere

Robert Moir — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:02:00 GMT

But I'm too busy laughing to stop and point it out ....(read more)

Help me Roberto, my web server just got hacked!

Robert Moir — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:16:00 GMT

Yet another in the "I get asked this a lot and so finally I decided to write an article" series. This question keeps being asked repeatedly by the victims of hackers breaking into their web server. The answers very rarely change, but people keep asking the question. I'm not sure why. Perhaps people just don't like the answers they've seen when searching for help, or they can't find someone they trust to give them advice. Or perhaps people read an answer to this question...(read more)

I'm busy trying to decide which article idea should be my next one...

Robert Moir — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:50:00 GMT

... so in the meantime here's a picture of some LOLcats. We're in your computer phishing your Internets. Or something....(read more)

Vista sucks - officially!

Robert Moir — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:28:00 GMT

Don't let the spin fool you. Microsoft have agreed to extend the "end of shelf-life" date for Windows XP for another 5 months because people are just not buying into Vista in the way they hoped. This is an embarassing climb-down for Microsoft, and one that I think has been forced by OEMs and resellers who are worried at slow sales of new hardware. This priceless quote from the head of PC World, a large UK retailler, sums it all up perfectly: "Gross margins have been materially...(read more)