Shame on you computer store !...

Today I had to fix a personnal computer : HP slimline :

According to the user, it is so slow that his son never used it well... prefering his father laptop !..even to watch pictures.

I first reinstalled the computer from scratch with standard VISTA ; in other words, no additionnal crapware (*). Then I installed Avast and MS Office 2003.

But, despite 2 Gb of memory, MS Vista performance reported 1/5 !!

I discovered the graphic card is the bottom neck : only 64M of memory when a laptop today is running an integrated 256 MB...

I do not blame HP, as when using it with MS Office it runs ok. However, everybody knows tday that a family computer will be used for games...

Don't you think that the vendor should have warn the end user ?

(*) all software installed by computer makers - supposed free- that in fact slow down the computer. Typically here the full last version of Norton.... that end user never paid for updates so probably infected his computer...

De la bibliothèque peu fournie...

Je reviens de la Bibliothèque de ma ville. J'ai encore constaté que la rayon informatique est -encore- sous dimensionné.

Pourquoi, alors que une bonne dizaine de poste connectés à Internet prouve une bonne volonté des responsables pour les nouvelles technologies, ce rayon est si petit : une cinquantaine d'ouvrages seulement ! Les rayons bricolages et jardinage sont amplement plus fournis.

Cette bibliothèque n'est pas la seule dans ce cas. J'ai constaté cela dans bien d'autres villes. Bien sur aucun livre sur les théories de management informatique , ni sur le budget informatique, la gouvernance ou autre sujet de fond...

La bibliothèque est un lieu fréquenté par les étudiants et les enfants actuels. Alors les volumes sur Multiplan (ancêtre de MS Excel) ou sur des traitements de texte dépassé n'ont aucun intérêt.

Une amélioration cependant : des ouvrage sur la dernière version de la suite MS Office 2007, les outils Web 2.0... et même la programmation JAVA !

Pensez-vous aussi que les bibliothèques devraient être plus fournies en ouvrage sur l'informatique ? La bibliothèque de votre quartier est-elle bien achalandée en volumes traitant de l'informatique ?

Of knowing geography !

No, France is not part of Africa, as seenon VOA web site today , but on my point of view more a key member of Europe !


This is browsing Internet pleasure : the joy of dicovering some major mistake !

... by the way this is supposed to be THE voice of America ;-)

What is the biggest mistake you've found ?

Encore une Erreur Installation inexpliquée ...

Ce matin je voulais essayer Google Chrome, en remplacement éventuel de Firefox, pour ce que cela pourrait m'apporter dans l'utilisation des services Google. Ma configuration est ultra classique : MS Windows XP-sp3...

Téléchargement sans problème, mais message d'erreur à l'installation:

Ces deux produits phare des deux leader du marché (google et microsoft) désirent consolider leur position de monopole ...

Pour les particuliers, pour les TPE, voir toutes les PME sans service informatique, ce genre de message est inconcevable ! Aucune explication, aucun recours possible... Tant que ce genre d'erreur se produira, le métier de dépanneur informartique, le support informatique , les hotlines... auront de beaux jours devant eux.

Comment faire pour qu'une application s'installe sur tous les environnements standards du marché ?

Quel profondeur donner à un message d'erreur ?

Vous êtes éditeur, programmeur, testeur, qu'en pensez-vous ?

Of Torrent risky downloads...

I recently discovered that some people I know, some Geek as they call themselves, are using Torrent downloads to get free MS Windows 7 and free MS Office 10 !

Two of them already got some major infections ! A third one had to completely reinstall his computer...

I was quite sure that Microsoft did not give any new product for free... Specially if the product is not stable ! RC programs and test phases are important project process...

This has been confirmed on the new blog of the new MS Office 10 team blog !

I never use torrent to download fake software and other 'free' tools, do you ?

Cloud Computing Meeting tonight !

Le cloud computing vague de fond ou mode ?

Le cloud computing et le web 2.0 sont les thèmes de mon mémoire à l'IMI. Alors ce soir j'assiste à un meeting dont les détails sont ici : cloudcamp-paris

En dehors du discours des fournisseurs, je suis interessé par trouver des infos dans ce domaine et observver l'engouement des intervenants et des auditeurs !

Alors , tous les informaticiens professionnels au CloudCamp de Paris ?
...Ou alors juste des pationnés et des geeks ?

Admin Passwrod Change Poll

Hello

as you might know , I'm a ZOHO application addict...

Today I discovered a tool allowing poll for free.

Immediate test : how often you're changing server admin password ?

...As in fact our has to be changed soon.

PS : didn't sucess to find such a tool on Google gadgets ? any suggestion ?

Didn't suceed to connect to my zoho accound so this poll is in demo mode, any idea why ?

Of an Alternative to...

'Please as we have no more credit, find a free equivalent to this software as we won't pay licences anymore ?

'Please find this tool running under Linux as we have this IT team using only Linux from now ?

'What can I use instead of MS Office at home ?

We, IT Lovers, are facing these questions daily...I discovered today , (thanks to lifehacker) , an excellent and just starting fantastic website :

AlternativeTo

Despite the system (win,MacOs,Linux... and even online !) you will find there a solution for any replacement. Not only software, but also solution or application (I've done a test to replace Facebook and Twitter !!!)

The top : this is a 2.0 view website : we can all improve it for better results !

I'll now keep it in my bookmarks just in the same tab that filehippo.com ! Will you ?

My only suggestion : please do this website multilanguage ;-)

Of Google Dashboard

I discovered today that Google has a good dasboard :Apps Status Dashboard

This allows anybody to have a clear view on Google Applications health... But some Google tools are missing , very important for me : Blogger !

Ok : there is for a status on Blogger service, but a way less clear !

Please, Mr Google, can you please add Blogger to the above dashboard ?

Risque de virus du au débat sur la loi HADOPI

Actuellement le débat sur la loi HADOPI fait couler beaucoup de bruit, ici en France et sur le web.

En resumé (désolé pour les puristes), un accès internet pourra être coupé pendant un an , en cas de téléchargement illégal...y compris (et surtout ?) pour les particuliers.

Je ne veux pas discuter ici Je ne reviendrai pas ici sur cette loi (*), mais sur une conséquence inatendue.

J'ai connais plusieurs boites aux lettres (yahoo,gmail, ...) qui recoivent un email :

Your internet access is going to get suspended

The Internet Service Provider Consorcium was made to protect the rights of software authors, artists.
We conduct regular wiretapping on our networks, to monitor criminal acts.

We are aware of your illegal activities on the internet wich were originating from

You can check the report of your activities in the past 6 month that we have attached. We strongly advise you to stop your activities regarding the illegal downloading of copyrighted material of your internet access will be suspended.

Sincerely
ICS Monitoring Team

Quand j'ouvre l'email on me confirme qu'une liste de mes téléchargements illégaux est jointe ! Et bien sur c'est un virus !

Alors restons vigilants : n'ouvrons pas ces emails et encore moins les documents attachés !!

(*) Juste une question : si je suis chez un FAI et que j'utilise une boite aux lettres Yahoo ou Gmail, recevrais-je les emails d'avertissement avant coupure ?

My own Eeexperience !

I had to attempt a meeting on 'cloud computing' ( a wonderful state of the art day from 01 Infomatique) (*). I decided to take notes on my new net book : the eeePC 900 , running Xandros system (linux).

I have been very positively surprise by the battery power : 3 hours long ! Here are the settings I configured :
- no wifi : Fn+F2
- no sound : Fn+F7
- decrease light : Fn+F3
- I did not used webcam of course !

Despite the chair were big , and very comfortable, the Netbook was on my knees... I have been very positively surprise by the heat from the boo tom of the computer : I've been able to work without suffering from hight temperature on my legs.

PS :did I mention it was running Xandros (linux) system (not MS Windows power consumer...), did I ? Yes, I did ;-)

I've been dispointed by the keyboard : may be because my fingers are to big, I mistyped very often some keys on the AZERTY keyboard... Specially with the key fn+End , they keys combination Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and past...

Is this netbook one answer (among other...) to green coimputing ?

(*) I was there in order to get the more information as possible for my publication 'cloud computing and web 2.0' for my one year training at IMI...

Of not having emails

I'm reading this blog : ZenHabits and today discovered an interesting discussion about not using emails (Read article) !

I guess that with three professional email addresses , two personnal , one job hunting address and one junkspam address, I couldn't spend more than a week without reading mails !

More over, in the company I'm working at the moment, we're facing a huge problem of corrupted attachments inside MS Exchange 2003 server...

The Management Board requested me to be fully dedicated on this issue now as email is a key tool for daily work...

So , No , I think we could not leave emails today. What about you ?

Of opensource in daily work...

Once again , open source tool helped me.

I had to merge huge existing pdf files, without spending a money .

I discovered (thanks to Framasoft pingu !) the amazing free tool :

PDF Split And Merge Basic

Why use expensive Adobe tools, as this one is free and works perfectly !

On your side, are you using an pen source tool to replace expensive software ?

Of program size increase...

I think that some basic programs/tools will be definitly replaced by open source ones because of their size : like 2007/2008 19 to 26 M in one year for quicktime ! What about Acrobat Reader 9 : 25.4 Mb !...

We all need these great tools for what they're doing the best : multimedia/reader... Who cares about all improvement ?

Here's what I'm using : VLC (13.8) and FoxIt reader (2.56 Mo) ! They're only so simple without any extra ! Thy're doing their job, and doing it well...

The buzz is all about tiny computers called netbook with tiny ram disk space. These tools would be also my favs if I could have one of these.

Are you still using these sisk space killers ?

Of risky Win XP SP3...

To avoid anoyance with Win XP:

A little warning about auto-update your computer with Windows XP SP3... as one of my friend had to remove it ! It seems in some case this update makes computer to permanently reboot.

So except if you are working on a test platform, may I suggest to urgently wait before autoinstalling it .

If you're facing some problems, it is simple as a program to remove it !...back to reliable SP2.

Now to be honest , I installed it at work on a new fresh install without any problem since days... but was a virtual computer !

PS : please no comment about MAc or Linux here ;-)

Of long term backup...

Last week-end I was lucky enough to have a conference from a forest admin here in france and he pointed a curious fact : to manage our forest we have readable and valuable information (on papers, sometime only painted !) around 200 years old... but we are unabled to read data only 15 years old, since computers are used to manage this forest !

We , IT guys, are all aware of the backups necessity. The best practice of keeping backups in safe area, in at least two location and to try full restore from time to time. OK with that ?

Who tried to restore data only 5 years old ? then 15 years old or more ??

Some cloud solutions appearing now (Amazon S3) ; other SAN with fiber chanel ; they are only answering the technological question of today...what about in the future ?


... but in some years , how will we recover data from there ? Once software and systems will be updated... Should we all keep a paper version of every file ?

How do you plan to manage long term backups ?

Of remembering password after vacation

As IT expert you have a backup of your data, you have checked all systems with last security patches and upddated your antivirus program. You have stopped all modifications on application and or system since a week or two...

Did you save a list of your daily used passwords and keys ?

You may have given some of admin passwords to the team in charge of the support during your vacation. But if not ?

I already see comments like 'no, never write down any password, never !" I did not ask you to create an spreadsheet with all your password, and leave it under your keyboard (I saw that today from a supposed high lebel user ) But keep the paper version at home for example then delete the file.

My better choice : I've only one to remind the database key one of my keepass programm ! I've writen it inside my mobile phone contacts. I can now go on vacation ! I have a backup of this database file on my computer @ home... without keepass installed on it.

PS : another good tip for your users : ask them to change their passwords once back from vacation, not just before going to sea side for three weeks !!!...

What is your paswword policy , to keeep them in mind during vacation ?

Of the 'Google excuse" for intrusive calls

Today, I've been called by an IT company for a job opportunity. The woman said they found me by entering 'CV' (french word for resume) in Google search engine.

Hey, I am in the Google for my eResume ! Or am I such a gurru to have a good page rank on this eResume. After a quick double check on my own computer, I saw she was obviously lying. This has been confirmed as soon as she mentionned my last job in 2003 !

Today Google is intrusive, we all know it. However is it starting to be an excuse for people with no answer to a basic question : how do you know me ? Ok, google is an entry point for most of Internet search today, but think please, think by yourself : how a french IT could be better known , or better noted that all the companies who are paying Google because they're sailing books about career search, hiring companies...

Did you already faced the "Google excuse" ?
More important : how do you track your old resume versions left on the web ?

PS : I will of course send here my eResume page

Of justification versus outsourcing support...

Recently, I have been surprised during an interview :

"please describe in few words why your physical presence is needed for the affiliate, if the headquarter can do the support remotely ?"

My answer was based obviously first on the fact that this French affiliate needs a french speaking support available on daytime in France. Moreover, I thought about response time for support, quality of feed back to end users, local management toward French providers of internet and wan, localisation of trainings , localisation of micro project; I'm also the best ears that IT Team in Headquarter could have to get feed back on application they're deploying over affiliate.. At the end , in conterpart, I suggested that I am also the best link to convince end users in this affiliate to apply group policies (at least in terms of IT)

This question was in fact to test my english level both in technical and professional speaking...
The answers were more than ok on both level : english level (ok, my spoken english may be better than my written English) and quality of answers in term of company needs point of view.

But this question is reflecting the most common question about ROI, outsourcing and all these kind of questions that a IT Manager (or even IT Director or CEO !) have daily in mind these years, I'm sure.

So what do you think ? How would you defend your local presence versus outsourcing ? In order to convince the managment that you (or even your complete team !) need to be physically here ?

Or may be , would you help headquarter to hire you (or your team !) to do remote support on this affiliate you so well anderstand and know ?

Of the good usage of support contract... from the Provider !

Today has started as a black Tuesday. As I entered the office 'Hey we have no more mails and can't connect ! Can you have a look ?' - says my boss.

The main Exchange server is down : powered off ! After restarting , I check all loags and (thanks to Nagios tracelog) I can see the outage time : 22:04 (10 PM) so it is not a human intervention in Paris. I so check with HQ in another European country : no they did noting even as test... So I check MSWindows event viewer : not any clear info. Pressed by management , I decide to leave it running.. for three hours !

@ 12:30 - lunch time !! key time in France ;-) - another crash ! I decide then to call HP with our support contract ! And then bingo : less than 1 minute to have ticket open, less than 10 minute for a call back of a technician !! He decided to ask me only two things , without going back to the begining and then decide to ship us new power parts !!! The contract was a four hours supports, but only 1:45 hours parts are in our office. Only 15 minutes to change them. And powered back the server is now live !!

Conclusion : it is a good think to have a support contract ! It is better to have a good provider linked to it. Thanks HP France!