happymeal

So - today's the National "Uniform To Work Day" where reservists across the country wear their military uniform to work to highlight the number of reservists working in the workplace. Uniform to Work Day So far I've been: wolf-whistled had a few people double-take when I walk past had a Manger/MD salute me as I walk past had a toy soldier popped on my desk had 3 people tell me they tried to find me but couldn't see me because of the camouflaged uniform Anyone else on here in the same boat? Or am I alone in this?

I'm assuming Sunny is living with family when I say this - but that's still a responsibility to pay it out. Most people I know that live at home pay the bare minimum out (One guy barely pays £100 to his parents). So taking on a financial responsibility - good on you. At least it shows your willing to step up a bit plus should you branch out on your own, you won't find things much more taxing. Well until the dozen odd mothers start knocking on your doors for DNA tests.... *whistles and walks away*

You're only as young as you feel - which is why I'm banned from parts of the office and HR are usually on speed-dial... I'm 29 but the stuff I've done leave me feeling like I'm in my 50's (odd back and knee pains) but I happily have the mental age of 18 sometimes

what do the ipconfig's show? different subnets/gateways used? IPV4 or IPV6? Are they roughly in the same area of the school? Are they going through the routers/switches?

So you can't see anything at all - no initial Dell/Acer/Whatever model splash screen? Might be that the graphics driver has gone u/s (Think nvidia released a few over the weekend) - is it still under warranty?

The Wanderer This guy - knows it all. No, really. He was never born - he was the result of a mish-mash of Encarta, the Matrix and a few dodgy Command Lines. If you ever have a problem, he knows the reason for it, what you should have done to fix it, and how to prevent it in the future. The only problem is that he/she/it was born with a 6th sense - which is to predict the exact time when a problem will occur and to flee the scene and not be able to answer phone calls/texts/emails. So ultimately, you get landed with the job and after much troubleshooting and a long lengthy fix to resolve the problem, a vibe is sent out. Much alike a high-pitched whistle to dogs - this call snaps the Wanderer out of his/her/it's trance and they then retreat back to their lair and then proceed to tell you what you should have done.

Is it a guide, or are you looking at a "cheat sheet" as well? Our training here consists of a Powerpoint/video presentation showing them the What/Where/When/Why, followed by a built-in interval for me to show them in slow-time. I then put the presentations on a shared drive for them to look at in their own time, as well as a "cheat sheet" for them to follow

Tempted to dob him in as Al-Qaeda's Tubby English Brigade... we did have a problem with one of the flats with a certain drug user who was very unpleasant. Various anon calls were made about his dealing/using (Wasn't 100% sure) - then the police did a raid a few days later and found a nice sizable stash. Haven't seen him in a year. At the moment there's only 4 flats at the back enterance - once has a camera trained on his front door as he's a nasty piece of work and he's upset a lot of people (Came home one night and found two people kicking his door and threatening him) - so I can't see any problems with me popping a camera up. I spent an hour having a look around the car park and surrounding areas to find a nice concealed spot to place it and where it'll give me a good view and found about 2-3 places. The favourite is on the college building next to us (It's a bungalow next to our building).

FPV Quadcopter - now...that's tempting. Pop a small deodorant can with a lighter, and I have me some fun! Alas neither one of them have a car. Or a job. Or life. I think I'll take @ICTDirect_Dave's advice and get that camera - I've found a nice hedge/scrub over the wall which gives me a nice view of the place. Failing that, there's a power distributor-type-outhouse on the opposite side where I can pop the camera on the roof and get a decent view of all the flat entrances.

The car won't give me the best angle - I basically want to see him damage the left-side (All the damage is done there, because he thinks I can see him), and the run away to his flat. I'll keep that camera in mind - will try see if I can get one that's wireless. Wouldn't put it past that hobbit f*ck to try and climb the tree to steal it - at least if it's wireless I can record it onto the laptop.

Sadly the car-park is right on the corner of our flat (Ground level). The bedroom doesn't overlook it (I can see, but I have to open the window and really lean out) and the only one that I can get a view from is the toilet window. There are 2 trees overlooking it, but Douchbag Jnr likes to feed the birds there.an artists sketch.bmp The only thing I can think of is to get a camera in that tree - he lives to the left/above my flat. If I put one there, I can see him during the day and can see him going back in. But not sure how to get power to it or how to get it working at night. If I put it in my car, there's no guarantee I'll get a decent pic/proof. Bear traps and claymores may win out the day here, but I'll settle for proof at this point.

Any ideas where I can grab one from? Are they subtle - want to actually catch him, not pop up a massive sign that says "oi, I'm onto you"

Ok. So I'm struggling with the local populace where I live. I currently live in a Places for People bunch of flats with a main front entrance, and a rear entrance with a set of gates. Now for the past year I've been parking the car inside the back gates with no problem. I leave the back gates un-padlocked as people use it to cut through (plus there's no general padlock/key for everyone). One douchmonkey likes to padlock the back gate as "it should be locked" but tried to charge people for a key. This causes problems as I can't get out, other people can't get out, and if something should happen, the blue-light mob can't get in. He's that obnoxious that I decided after trying to be an adult about it and trying to reason with him to just start cutting the locks off. Oddly after he tried intimidating one of the residents, she her telling him to shove off, her car starts getting damaged - after a month of the same tyre being damaged, she has now moved on, but he's started focusing on moi now. I started getting screws in my tyres, loud music played from his flat - it got to the point where I jumped in my car at 6am, started to drive into work, and the tyre blew less than a few yards from the motorway. In my view, if that'd blown while I was on there, I'd have seriously been injured. So I contacted the police who had a work with him, and opened a case with Environmental Health (Who sent him the documents instead of us)so we can start trying to get rid of the muppet. Since he's got the documents, he's backed off. A lot. I once caught him trying to damage my car and kicked him really hard in the balls (Was in my TA gear at the time, with combat boots... ) But now, his mate living above us has started this off now. It started with a padlock, then he tried to wedge a screw into my car, and now he's taken to scratching it last night (We hear his door open/close). I've had enough of it - but I can't exactly kick down his door and leather him (He's late 40's and him and life often struggle to get along). Instead, I want to look at getting some evidence against the little git, but I haven't got a clue where to start or much money to do it with. Any ideas/help would be GREATLY appreciated - I'm currently jumping out of bed at dumb times to check the vehicle.

Pffft. Feast's are the way forward!

Is it the actual machines, or just certain user accounts? Could it be GP not setting the correct theme for those machines? I'm thinking maybe someone changed the theme on the Desktop using a .exe or something along those lines, and GP isn't able to switch it back? If it's user specific maybe they've got something hidden away in their profile setting it?

I remember my Work Experience which consisted of brew runs, stuffing envelopes, and watching someone input invoices - needless to say I was bored! What most employers should be doing is treating the person as if they are coming in to fill a role - so a full intro of the job, tasks, bit and bats - give them a good look into what it is you do and see if they want to become a mini-you. What I've done in the past here is: * Introduction to the Site we support * Introduction to the Servers we use (ie what is saved on where, how to access it, etc) * Introduction to the Software we support (standard Office, Exchange, bespoke software, etc) * Introduction to how we support sites (remote desktop software - acceptable use/manners VS bad usage) * Introduction to the hardware sites use (PC's, how the image is prepped and distributed, how you install it, how to repair WB's and projectors, etc) That should take you about 2-3 days, then onto some basic troubleshooting methods and get them into the habit of trying to diagnose things and try to fix them. Then get them to shadow someone "decent" for the next few days and go from showing them how to diagnose/repair/install to getting them to do it. Also - an introduction to certifications would be a great help as well (as in what you need to start out, what you will need to do certain jobs ie network manager, Desktop Support, etc).

Le sigh. I just found Forefront Identity Manager 2010 RIGHT after posting this...

Afternoon all! I've been toying with replacing our Password Management Portal here with something that will be a bit "easier" for the end user to use to reset/unlock their accounts. At the moment we have an internal site where users can access the page (With someone else logged into the PC) to reset their password/unlock their account by entering their username and answering their security questions, and then getting a temporary password to use. The system is a bit difficult to use for them (The users are in their late 40-50's and still consider PC's to be sorcery). I'm looking at replacing that site with a simple tool - you see the Windows login screen and if you've forgotten your password, you can click on an icon and be presented with your security questions. Once answered, your account is unlocked and you get a temp password. I've had a look around and I can see a few tools from Mcafee (Can't see anything about security questions) and I've seen the one from Wiseoft, and I've had a quick scan through the forums - but I'm struggling to find anything that really suits what I need. I don't really want to start giving Center Managers access to AD, let alone the end-user, and I'm trying to make it as simple as possible to both implement and get them to use (They complain over the simplest things!). Does anyone here use something similar, or know of something that does the same job?

Congratulations on surviving another year!

Bought World War Z and The Reluctant Fundamentalist on Friday, both are good reads. Finished The Last Man by Vince Flynn on Sunday on the drive back from camp - good book and like the main character too. Also managed to get a hold of an old copy of Animal Farm which I'm just flicking through now - seems appropriate for work!

Shhhh you fool - they'll see through the facade and expect things of me!!!!!

I'm guessing there's no supplier mark on the bottom of the cup (I'm assuming it's held hostage somewhere?)? It looks a bit M&S - or Zazzle?

What about you and your eldest join somewhere - that way they get to try something new, you get to see if it's what your after? It'll give your OH a bit of a break with only one at home, and then overtime sign your youngest up to complete the set

If you don't mind me asking, how old are they?

You want me to work outside of my contracted hours? That starts at £19.50 - and I charge the full hour. Unless they're willing to pay you for it, don't do it. It's a hard thing to say no, but unless you make that break I'd start expecting late-night calls to be the new norm.