27
Aug
Back From V
So I’ve finally been able to come home from work a write a post on V Fest 09. I’ve been totally knackered over the past couple of days and have pretty much come home from work and gone staight to bed! It is so nice sleeping on a soft surface rather than a stone ridden field that is Weston Park.
So how was V Fest I hear you ask? Well it so awesome! Actually awesome doesn’t do it justice! I had an amazing time at V this year as I did last year. I think the only difference in the awesomeness is that this year on the Saturday and Sunday there was not a drop of rain. I’m feeling the affects now. I got extremely burnt!
I think the best act I saw all weekend would have to be Pendulum. If I remember right it was their last tour gig and they made it count. I was at the front for most of it and saw at least 3 people get carted off by paramedics! (They couldn’t take how awesome it was!) They play amasingly. I’m very much a fan of Pendulum’s music but they are amasing live! I recommend seeing them to anyone. My next favourite act of the weekend would hands down be Snow Patrol. It was very emotional on the Saturday evening. The crowd kept singing along to songs after they had finished for a couple of verues I didn’t think the band new what to do.. Sing along or play the next song.. .
As it didn’t get the campsite didn’t get flooded again this year. It was nice to be able to chill out in the evening with a nice (not so cold) beer. I choose not to drink in the arena as it is so expensive but a few drinks in the evening went down a treat! The first night was pretty cold but I think my sun burn kept me warm the rest of the nights which was nice but painful!
I had hoped to update facebook/twitter with the antics I was getting up to at V but as cool as the iPhone is.. The battary doesn’t last very long and when I did have it turned on to update facebook it didn’t get a signal!
Here are just a few pics I took of the stages. I’ve also got a video of Fat Boy Slim. His set was awesome, never seen him play or heard much of his work but he was very good!
update: Removed images while I resize them
9
Aug
V Festival 09
I have got my V Festival Ticket! It came in the post a couple of days ago. Its not long till it all kicks off about 2 weeks. I can’t wait!
More Info: V Festival
28
Jul
Remote Desktop Manager
I’ve found that in my placement I am using Remote Desktop quite often to connect to remote servers. I’ve used remote desktop before at home but on a smaller scale but I’ve started to find typing in addresses and user names rather time consuming so I turned to Google!
I came across Remote Desktop Manager which is free for personal and commercial use. Its been great and is such a time safer. So great in fact I am writing a post about it and I also coughed up the £10 odd it cost to upgrade to the enterprise version as some passwords just need to be saved!
I would recommend this to anyone who has alot of Remote Desktoping to do as it really is the best thing since sliced bread! However it also has a few other tricks under its belt. It can manage FTP, SHH, Telnet and VNC sessions as well. I saw on the forums it may also support VMware console in the future but I’m not sure. Anyway check it out!
23
Jul
4 Weeks Later
Well it has been a while since I have posted and a lot has been going on so I do apologise. Its been just over 4 weeks since I moved to Birmingham and what a great experience it has been. My placement has kicked off to a great start and I quickly got to know the ins and outs of the company and its systems so a big thanks to Talwinder, the current placement student I will be replacing.
Birmingham its self has been awesome. Last Monday I went with my new flatmate and his friends to The Rainbow to see Kid British! What a great band and they played amazing live! I also saw The Anomalies which were also awesome and other band which were very good but I have no idea what they were called… Any who it got me in the mood for V festival which is only a month away!
My placement has been a real learning curve and I think its going to get steeper which is always fun. I’m currently looking at a Windows PBX called 3CX which may be implemented at the office.
This weekend I’ll hopefully get round to having a look at the new update for Windows Home Server. Power Pack 3 has been released under a BETA tag, which means its not quite ready for the public as it might still have bugs in the software. It brings support for Windows 7 enhancements to Windows Media Centre. Check it out here.
On that note I have been checking out a new media centre called Boxee! After leaving the Stafford house the original Xbox running XBMC has been retired as I no longer have a TV (Soon to change) so I started using Boxee as a Windows version had just been released. I was very impressed initially and continue to be bemused by its features. Boxee is based on XBMC but does a much better job at presenting its self. The applications feature is also a great edition allowing UK users to watch BBC iPlayer, although here in Birmingham I am on 2mb broadband so can’t stream the HD content. I was going to set up XBMC on my new TV though a PC rather than an the Xbox but I think now it’ll be running Boxee so watch this space!.. Going to have a to buy a TV first though.. and maybe a new small computer..??
Also a quick GOOD LUCK to Andrew, Michael and Dave who are in Germany finishing their first week on placement!
30
Jun
No Post, No Video Display – Asus P6T-SE
Yesterday the new machine I built had an Asus P6T-SE motherboard. Once built and switched on we found that the machine would not boot or show any video display. A quick google resolved this to conclude the BIOS needing a new firmware update but how can you update it without video display?
Well it seemed to boot without a DVI cable attached. So remove all video cables including VGA and boot the machine wait 3/5 minutes and attach a VGA cable and the monitor should display the BIOS asking to confirm default settings.
Head over to the ASUS Support Site and download the latest firmware (Version 0403) and burn it to a CD. Don’t forget to unzip it first. Updating the motherboard was straight forward using Asus EZ Flash utility in the BIOS and took a minute or two.
More Info: http://vip.asus.com
29
Jun
First Day
So I suppose for the 3000 word report I apprently have to write on my placement year I should start writing about the day to day business of my placement experience. Well my first day is over and done with and now it seems quite exhausting. Myself and Tal, the current placement student sorted out my computer which took a while because of some trouble with getting it to recognise the hard drive. Later I built a new computer for the MD a nice and powerful Intel quad core machine which I believe will be hooked up to a very nice new24in monitor. This also gave us some problems but a quick Google resolved that issue and it turned out a quick BIOS update was needed.
Really enjoyed my first day even with the high temperatures up in the office. On to the next!