Because I’ve had my Raspberry Pi for about six months now, I feel it is time that I told you a bit about what I think of it. However, on some levels, I still don’t feel ready to review it. I haven’t used it that much yet, and I feel that I don’t fully grasp it’s power or purpose yet. Continue Reading
gadgets
All posts tagged gadgets
Because users are often unpredictable, admins like to restrict how much control and access they have on their devices. However, when deploying a new set of devices, the significant question of “How much control or freedom should we give the users?” doesn’t seem to get enough consideration. For some network administrators, and for some end users, this question may seem to have a simple answer, but once you’re considering hundreds of different devices, and/or hundreds of different users, it becomes a big, complex conundrum. It is a matter of serious consequence for your system and network security, as well as device usability and user satisfaction.
Because you end up with all sorts of problems if you don’t know what you’re doing. “You shouldn’t use technology that you don’t understand.” At first glance, this stance doesn’t sound unreasonable. In fact, it seems totally logical. How can you use something if you don’t understand it? However, when you start to think about what it is to “understand” something, you realise that it’s not that simple. Continue Reading
So, for most of this year, I’ve had an iPad on loan from the House, so that I could share in the iPad experience, and better support them. Now that the year, and my traineeship, is nearly over, I have to hand it back and I’m left with a few questions: Was the iPad actually any good? Did I actually use it? Am I going to miss it? Do I want to buy one, now that I’m not going to have this one anymore? Continue Reading
So, all year, I’ve been dealing with Dell; their computers, their Pro Support, their technicians. And from my experience, I’ve learnt many things, so I’m going to share with you as many of the tips and tricks that I’ve picked up as I can.
So, a while back, an employee came into IT Support with two external hard drives because they needed help copying some data across. She started telling us that she wanted this and that “copied onto Betsy,” and she needed “Oscar reformatted to work with Mac”. After a few moments, we realised that she was referring to her hard drives by name, as if they were people. Mr Chief and the Professor both thought it was quite strange and funny, but I kind of thought it was totally reasonable. And this got me thinking about what people name their devices and why. Continue Reading
So, you haven’t heard anything about what’s been going on at the house in a while, so I’ve got a few short tales to tell you. Continue Reading
Juniper EX Switch Stack By drkfiber on Flickr
⇈This is not mine. Click on the picture to go to the source.⇈
So, not so long ago, we were have big trouble with our network when one of the switches that serves the area where IT is located started playing up. Here’s a rundown of what was happening. Continue Reading
So, I’ve always wanted a Wacom tablet. For years now, I’ve wished I had one. Ever since I heard about it, I’ve thought it would be cool to be able to draw straight into the computer. I see myself as a bit of an artist, and I’m definitely a tech-head, so a Wacom tablet is a meeting of passions for me.
It’s for this reason that recently I’ve been seriously considering different models. I’ve been trying to weigh up the different features and types to find which one would be best for me. Some of the specs are easy to envision and understand, but some aren’t as easy.
One thing that’s deceivingly hard to wrap your head around is the side of these tablets. The size that actually matters is the size of the active area, which is the part of the tablet where the pen, or touch if the tablet supports it, will actually work. If you’re like me and have been looking at getting one of these tablets, you’ll have spent much wasted time hunting around the room with a ruler, looking for a book or piece of paper that just happens to be the same size as these dimensions. That’s why I’ve made some templates for you to print out, so you can get a better feel for them.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “What’s special about that? I could’ve easily cut a piece of paper to size. It’s called a pair of scissors.” Ah, but the difference with my templates is that they comprise of a rough diagram of where all the stuff in an image editing program would be on screen, and you print the diagram at the same size as the active area.
Why is this important? Because the active area on one of these tablets is mapped to match your screen layout. What I mean is that if you tap in the top left corner of the active area, your mouse will go to the top left corner of the screen. The same is true for all the other corners, as well as any point onscreen. So, the upshot of this is that while the active area might be massive, if your working area onscreen is less than the whole screen, then you won’t get to use the whole active area as that working area. That’s why I’ve created the diagram to roughly show you how much screen and active area space the toolbar, taskbar, and all the different tool windows take up. Continue Reading
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