X marks the spot ...

... where Christ has been taken out of Christmas. It is common to hear people refer to Xmas and even 'Chrimbo'.
Why am I, you might ask, talking about Christmas, as it is not one of the Holy Days in the Baha'i calendar? Well, many of my family are Christian, and they come to visit us at Christmas time. The last of our relatives has now gone home and the house is returning to a more 'normal' appearance. Respect for all faiths is important in the Baha'i teachings, and the harmony and unity of the family is also important. Members of our family will be joining us when we celebrate our Baha'i Holy Days.

"Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship"

SatNav - where goest thou?

I have just had a visitor who complained about the road signs in getting to my house. Talking of the problem, I discovered that he had relied exclusively on directions given by his SatNav system. It directed him along a road which was converted to "buses only" about 6 months ago!
What worried me about this was the fact that my visitor proceeded to follow the directions of the SatNav and ignore the road sign! Why are we becoming so trusting of a system that we ignore the warnings that are put on the road? This is not the first time I have heard of drivers who disregard road signs; because the SatNav tells them to go a certain route, then they will go that way whatever the road signs are.

Personally, I much prefer using a map and thinking about where I am driving. I would never hand over control to some device. Perhaps it is because I work with computers and know their limitations.

wireless fun

I connected my laptop to my wireless router the other month, but until today had not got round to configuring my daughter's laptop computer for wireless connection. Configuring my SimplyMEPIS linux machine to take an Intel card was so easy, I thought that there would be no bother connecting my daughter's machine. How wrong I was! Even though the wireless LAN card was supplied with, and had the same maker name as the laptop, I could not get it to work under Windows XP - all I had was the message that the driver failed to load. Searching for a solution (using the ethernet cable connection), I discovered that others had encountered the same difficulty. The card, like the computer, is a rebadged OEM device and identified in Windows as a Prism card. I discovered that the card was recognised in the Linux system that I run on my laptop. So I came to the obvious solution - I swapped cards! MY laptop now has the Intersil Prism running under SimplyMEPIS, and my daughter's machine is using the Intel card.
Just goes to show that 'extras' supplied with a machine are not always guaranteed to work with it!

Security - what security?

Whilst working on getting my network moved from a wired LAN to wireless, I discovered a neighbour had set up a wireless lan also. Nothing wroing in that, of course, but then I saw the details - "encryption none, access control none". I also saw the name of the network device and sure enough there is someone with that name living locally. In fact there is only one entry in the phone book with that surname. Now, I ask you, how sensible is that? My router box is configured with a SSID that is neither the name of the manufacturer, nor any name related to my family. Not only is the access to my device encrypted. but it has a MAC address filter enabled as well. This means that only the devices that I have listed can gain access to my network.
May I humbly suggest that anyone who does not have security enabled get it set up as soon as possible?

scope creep

One of the major problems when it comes to planning a project is "scope creep". You have probably met this already, when someone says "by the way, whilst you are doing it, can you just add ...". It is those three little words "can you just". The speaker obviously thinks that what is being asked for is a small extension to what is already being done. What they may not realise is that their request may force a complete change to the design!
Scope creep is not helpful to those working on the project as it means more work within the same deadline, or else the end of the project is for ever being delayed (the never-ending project). Both of these lead to a demoralised staff.

are bloggers really bullies?

I read the other week that some TV critic had described those who write blogs as 'bullies'. Really? Do you (assuming anyone is reading this) think that my occasional thoughts and comments amount to verbal assault. I offer the comments in a spirit of co-operation and assistance, much like the help I give to colleagues at the office or email support.
Sadly there is still a large amount of misunderstanding, even mystique, surrounding computers, and I feel compelled as an 'insider' to spread knowledge about what computers can and cannot do, and also to look at the ways in which people (workers and managers) deal with writing computer programs and supporting them.
Does anyone care to offer a view on how useful, if at all, they find my sporadic comments?