Clive

Owner and author of Clive's Blog.

iPhone 4 Built in Camera App

/ General / , ,

Whilst I was away I tried out both the Camera+ app and the built in camera app. The Camera+ has lots of options and other “good things” for making creative images, editing, sorting etc. The built in camera is much simpler but it does have an HDR setting dessigned to deliver better quality images. I set the camera to save both the composite HDR image and the “standard” image for comparison. I was very pleased with the results especially in very difficult lighting.

The first images are the standard shots, the second are in HDR

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Server Did Not Work

/ Business /

Back to work this morning with a bump, one of our client’s suffered a major power outage over the weekend – the UPS closed the server down without issue, except when it was restarted the clients could not log in, browse the web etc. (HP server running Windows Small Businee Server 2003). I promised the client one of my engineers would be there for 8am to see if the problem could be solved before his staff got in. I got to go!

A check of the event log showed several errors all of which pointed to a problem with the IPSEC service not starting. I tried to start the service manually but that did not work. In consultation with an engineer from another company it was decided simply to disable to IPSEC service and restart to server. This worked in as much as it allowed the office to start working again (including several staff who connect and use terminal services) but it did not address what was wrong. The client was happy – even though user who access their email via OWA were unable to without the IPSEC service running – as by 10am his people were working. We’ll work the solution out later this week.

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Be Prepared

/ Outdoor Gear / , ,

I went to the bar at Pine Lake to night and at about 9.30pm there was a power cut. No power anywhere onsite. Fortunately between the emergency lights and candles the bar stayed open, they did not need electricity to serve to beer and they improvised a till.

I headed back to my lodge at about 11pm in darkness, one enterprising “camper” had parked his car outside the patio window of their unit and was using the headlights to light the room. When I got back, used the led light on my key ring to light my way to my backpack where I had my Petzl headlamp – I also unpacked my led hand light from my possibles pouch and I have that clipped to the uplighter in the living room with a small caribiner.

the next thing was a hot drink – there is a steel tray in the kitchhen so I turned that upside down and put that on one of my tea towels to provide protection for the work top and used my meths stove and crusader mug and lid to brew some fresh coffee.

There is also something wrong with the water pressure so I filled all three of my water bottles and the kettle just in case,

Another problem was I had spent the evening editing the address book on my iPhone and a few minutes ago I got the 10% power warning so I am now charging/powering the phone from the emergency power pack.

Be Prepared!

The photo is the bar by candle light.

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Pine Lake Resort Internet – Final Word

/ Travel, Walking / , , ,

I went to the reception this morning to ask what was going to happen. To be fair the receptionist did not know, I didn’t think she would, but I needed her to pass my problem on. Helpfully she said she would pass my problem on to her manager, unhelpfully she informed me that Pine Lake could not authorise a refund!

So after a day walking along the coast – see photo below taken from the promenade at Morecambe – I went back to reception where there was some news. The site maintenance could not fix the issue, neither can Swisscom, so no Internet. I did however get my money back.

Moral – I am sure the high speed internet works here, but think twice before buying it could use up some of your holiday sorting it out.

It is a shame I did not pack one of my engineers and his laptop, spares and toolbox – I just have the feeling we could have sorted at least a patch to get the customer online.

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Pine Lake Resort Internet – Update Day 3

/ Business / , ,

I got a call from another Swisscom tech support engineer today at about 2.30pm – who said he could not log into the device in my unit, so would be passing it back to Pine Lake onsite staff who would replace the unit. (I now wonder why this onsite team could not have visited me on Monday and swapped the device anyway – at least I would have been happy.)

Needless to say I did not get a visit today – now fed up wit this I am going to ask for a refund tomorrow and tell them to forget it.

Saturday evening – paid my money but no internet – I bought 7 days although that is really 6 days in the unit
Sunday – no high speed internet – 5 days left
Monday – no high speed internet – 4 days left

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Pine Lake Resort Internet – Update

/ General /

I waited for the Swisscom tech support to call me back and in the end at about 2pm (after I got nack from a walk) I called them for an update.

Again I got a very polite member of staff who looked up my case on their system, yes it had been escalated to the second line support team, but as of then they had not taken any action on the matter. It was explained to me that they were probably dealing with a higher priority matter. He resubmitted my call so it was again at the top of the call list.

So here I am waiting again – no internet. ICorrect me if I am wrong but I am pretty certain that someone here has made a profit from selling me this service.

Let’s keep a list of days without internet – but paid for.

Saturday evening – paid my money but no internet
Sunday – no high speed internet

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