jinnantonnixx

.... is fabulous. http://www.jolicloud.com/jolios It's a cloud based OS that ties together Google Docs, your web accounts, etc, and presents a rather pleasant (customisable) front-end to these apps, very much like Chrome OS. I installed it on my Dad's rather old Dell Mini 10 and it runs like a high performance workstation. It's been running a while, no support calls and no lost files. He's has happy as a sandbag. It's heavily tailored to the cloud, mind you, so if the thought of all your stuff living 'out there' scares you, it might not be for you. That said, you have to ask which is more likely - Google having a total systems failure, or your hard disk going wrong. Hmmmm. It does, however, allow local storage and apps, but you've got to dig a little to use them.

From a command line, run gpresult /v > result.txt Then view the result.txt file in Notepad. This will show you if any policies have been filtered out (maybe by mistake) If this sheds no light, you could run a GPO simulation through the Group Policy Management tool against the user and machine for both cases, see if there's any differences in the simulation results between the two machines/users.

It allows you to keep a 'warm' standby server ready to spring into action like a coiled tiger. Something like that anyway. In my case, every hour the logs are copied to a shipping file server, then copied to the standby server. If the main server goes west, the log shipping jobs are run on the main server if at all possible, but in any case the shipped logs are restored to the standby server which is then switched into action. In a real failure we actually experienced, we've switched 100 SIMS databases to the new server in about 10 minutes. It works well, but requires a lot of planning. I wrote the scripts to generate the log shipping jobs (the wizards are only of use for single databases) and this was tricky.

To safeguard the SQL server, backup the master and msdb databases, the model is used as a template when creating new databases (can normally be ignored unless you know it's been customised), forget the tempdb. I use log-shipping, so the MSDB is vital to this. You only need to backup the SIMS databases to restore the SIMS databases. The SIMS usernames and passwords are encypted and stored within the SIMS database. As Matt mentions, there are routines to store and transfer SIMS logins. If you restore SIMS to the same SQL server, the usernames and passwords will be preserved as they are populated to the master database by SIMS. If you need to restore to another SQL server, you'll need to use some SQL commands to create the SIMS users. Documented many time in Edugeek. Don't make the mistake of restoring the master database of one SQL server to a different SQL server- things will go very wrong.

A few words on the extras. I once opted for a high excess, and sod's law I made a claim. I recovered the loss, but I would have been significantly out of pocket if I had no third party to claim against. The uninsured loss cover is an interesting one. As far as I can tell, it's just a no-win no fee outfit working on your behalf. The insurance company charges you £25 or so, and just gives them your details when you claim. If there's no hope of a successful outcome, they won't pursue the claim anyway. It's such a profitable business, Google for loss recovery insurance, and you can get it for £1 or even free. Breakdown cover- I use AutoAid; spouse + all cars covered for £37. It's an insurance scheme, you claim back the cost of recovery. I've used them twice and they were excellent.

Batch files? Tons of 'em. It depends what you want to do. For instance, if you need to create a lot of folders and assign specific security, it makes sense to use batch files as you're staying close to the native commands - e.g. md, icacls. If you want to create AD users, you might use LDAP from VBS, or Powershell. DOS/Windows batch files are really quite limited though, with flaky logic controls and hacks a plenty. Not so with Linux's Bash, however, you can actually write proper code in Bash.

I disagree. So there. I use Ubuntu at home, with stock Unity. The first time I encountered Unity, I was aghast. It was such a culture shock. The WTFs could be almost visible floating out of the room. I tried Gnome Shell 3, sort of got on with it, but it wasn't quite right for me. So, I persevered with Unity. Now, I wouldn't swap it for anything. I've used KDE from 3.5, Gnome from 2, E17, Openbox, fluxbox, LXDE, XFCE, and probably more I can't remember. I find Unity fast, slick and efficient. I really do. Menus seem so old hat to me. Maybe you'll never like it, but I really see a future for it. Here's Mr Shuttleworth's view. Mark Shuttleworth

"CamelCase", I think, but with a lower-case first letter. Gives me the right hump.

When I used to write C++, "Hungarian naming" was popular, e.g. iCounter

A (little) bit off-topic, but I can't resist posting this: Actually, I don't think it's off-topic; it demonstrates the power of packaging and branding.

To those who say you can buy the equivalent (and perhaps better) products cheaper, you are likely to be correct, but you are missing the point. Apple is more than a bunch of products - it's a brand, an identity, a collective, almost a cult. And to those who say 'phooey' to this misunderstand the power that Apple has over its fans. Apple is a carefully crafted, desirable brand. Even the packaging of Apple products is a carefully deisigned 'experience'. Observe... The Joy of Opening an Apple Package | Abduzeedo | Graphic Design Inspiration and Photoshop Tutorials Here's why: http://mashable.com/2012/01/24/apple-unboxing-room/ http://gizmodo.com/5879097/apple-packing-is-so-good-because-they-employ-a-dedicated-box-opener The self-confessed Apple fan Stephen Fry writes a good piece on Apple. Steve Jobs « The New Adventures of Stephen Fry

May I recommend the book "The Timewaster Letters". Good fun.

Heartwarming stuff. Things like this go a long way.

I've had success with ICACLS with the "/reset /c /t" options. As long as you top level folder security is sensible, it will percolate through the lower levels resetting the inherited permissions for the profiles. This has got me out of a sticky situation with Windows 7's .V2 folders.

Too true. Before I bought my Android phone, I was considering getting a Nokia. I looked at their web-site, and tried to choose a suitable phone. When I looked, Nokia had just over 100 models to choose from. Over 100! I kid you not. Faced with this Dulux colour chart situation, I couldn't make a choice, so I and went and bough a San Fransisco Android phone instead. It does everything I want, and I bought it outright for £80.

I don't own any Apple products, but when I occasionally have a go on an ipod touch or iphone or similar, I'm always left with the impression that it was a pleasure to use. The experience is everything.

We were plagued by this fault on our systems, I wrote a start-up script to fix it - details in this thread: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/78733-windows-7-user-profile-failed-error-again.html#post700415

Good article. Very illuminating.

True Arch doesn't come with a default desktop - you install if from command line. If you're not keen on re-inventing the wheel, you might want to look at ArchBang, a distro of Arch but with a configured desktop (the lightweight OpenBox), ready to go. ArchBang It's by far the easiest way into Arch. I've run it virtually (just out of curiosity), and it's pretty neat.

If this is true, then should they ever meet they will be annihilated and release huge amounts of energy.

The Sansa Clip+ is a good, cheap player which should fit the bill. http://www.sandisk.co.uk/products/sansa-music-and-video-players/sandisk-sansa-clipplus-mp3-player

The Ubuntu documentation is usually pretty good; this might be a good starting point. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Samba You might want to look at something called SWAT, which is a GUI configuration manager for Samba, operated from a web browser pointing to the server. It's OK, and good if you need to get something up and running quickly. It's best to get to grips with the smb.conf files though, that's the proper way to do it.

On Ubuntu it's sudo service smbd restart smdb is 'sambda daemon' I suppose.

Then you need a small laptop.... The Ben NanoNote – The World’s Smallest Linux Laptop? Not quite sure what to do with it, but it looks fun. Gallery here: http://sharism.cc/gallery/?bwbps_page_1=1

Do they still come with balaclavas?