Push a little button.

Homeopathic "medicine"

2011-02-13T20:02:00.001Z

Nowhere on this packet does it say that it doesn't actually contain ANYTHING...

Lost at Wharncliffe woods dh trails - steel pendant

2010-09-27T11:34:00.001+01:00

I was riding at Wharncliffe woods on sunday (26th September), for the first time ever. Some how, even though I only live an hour away, I'd never got around to it. Maybe it's because most of my mates ride xc, or just that I'm actually quite lazy.

The dh trails there are amazing though, and a real credit to the guys at Wharncliffe Riders Collective - technical, rocky, rooty, fast and burly. Proper UK downhill, not like the sterile, manicured trails at most trail centres, but good proper stuff that makes you work for it, and the rewards are all the greater as a result.

The downside, however, was that I lost my steel pendant from around my neck (pictured). It was a present from my wife a few years ago, and I'm quite pathetically sentimental about it. I'm not sure which trail I lost it on, as we rode a few different ones, and pushed up a few different routes too. If anyone finds it, I'll find something to give you in return - beer / wine / bike parts / good karma / cuddles (everyone like cuddles).

Email me at tom.geraghty@yahoo.co.uk or tweet me @tom_geraghty

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

360 IT

2010-09-23T08:26:00.001+01:00

----- Forwarded message -----
From: "Tom Geraghty" <tom.geraghty@berrybros.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 23, 2010 07:26
Subject: 360 IT
To: <tom.geraghty@yahoo.co.uk>

Today, I'm going to the 360 IT show at Earls court. I've been to IT shows like this before, but I think this might be a new one - it certainly is to me.
I'm looking forward to it though, and I think it'll be really useful. I need to check out storage and backup technologies primarily, as that's probably our biggest business issue right now in relation to IT.
I'd also like to check out some of the fuss about "cloud computing", outsourcing IT support, inter-site connectivity, and mobile technologies.

Tom Geraghty
IT Manager
42 Headlands

Kettering
Northamptonshire
NN15 7HR

tom.geraghty@berrybros.com
Tel: 01536 532380
Fax: 01536 482517
Mobile: 0788 1914623

http://www.berrybros.com/
>

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

"Unlimited" data tariffs: What's a true fair use limit?

2010-09-01T08:59:00.001+01:00

I'm with Orange for my mobile contract, and data hiccups notwithstanding, quite satisfied. When I signed up, however, I asked for their "unlimited" data tariff, which (at the time) I was told had a 500MB "fair use" limit. 500MB? Really? If 500MB is fair use, then what's standard usage? Do Orange expect people to use less than a couple hundred MB per month? I asked them what they could do to increase the limit, and was told I could bolt on another 500MB for an extra tenner, but I (rightly) guessed that probably wouldn't be enough either.

As it turns out, they're able to bolt on one of the low-end datastick tariffs, which turns out as £9 for 10GB per month. Since then, I've been merrily downloading and munching on data without any fear of incurring extra fees.

I don't believe that I'm a particularly heavy user - I listen to podcasts, a little bit of internet radio, use twitter a lot, a bit of web, a bit of facebook, various web apps, and a little video too. Yet, I consistently go over 1GB per month, and sometimes 2GB. If I'm using this, there must be a considerable number of people using significantly more.

What sort of data volumes do you reach per month? And what do you think would be a true "fair use" limit?

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

"Measuring" social media success?

2010-08-26T15:54:00.001+01:00

I keep getting asked how "successful" my use of social media is, or how my business's marketing department can justify using social media for marketing.

To me, this seems a little like asking how successful our use of email is, or the telephone. I'd be surprised if we could directly attribute any revenue generation from our use of social media, our presence on twitter, a facebook, blogs, LinkedIn, or some other network, as it doesn't work like that. What I do know is that I find social media incredibly useful. It's changed my life, in some respects. I've made friends, discovered useful resources, attended social and business events, promoted myself, my business, and my work, I've become involved in a conversation that I would otherwise have been excluded from.

"People buy from people." - especially true when it comes to anything with real value. Consumers can now use social media to research products and services, ask for recommendations, and support when something goes wrong. A business using social media can expose themselves to these searches, more easily get recommended, and much more easily provide support if something goes wrong.

I recently signed up for hosting with 34sp, from a recommendation on twitter, and chose them because they use twitter for support, and that's important to me. BT, and Virgin Media both use twitter to provide support to customers, to great effect.

It's also far easier to deal with bad publicity if you're involved in social media. There are myriad examples of this, and I won't go into it right now, but if someone complains about you online, I think it's best to deal with it publicly and professionally - and the only way to to that is on the same platform as the complainant.

If you want to join twitter to post every two days about your new product line, tweet your website's url, and never use your real name, maybe social media isn't for you, yet.

If you're already a good communicator, enjoy networking, and want to improve your service rather than just make more sales, social media will be your thing.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Love heart note

2010-08-18T07:22:00.001+01:00

Seen in nottingham train station.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

For sale: 2006 Specialized Enduro with upgrades and experience!

2010-08-14T19:03:00.001+01:00

After just less than 4 years riding this little beast, I'm selling it. I've bought myself a beautiful new Trek Scratch Air 8 to replace it, and hopefully do the Megavalanche in 2011.

This is a 2006 Specialized Enduro (http://www.specialized.com/zz/en/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=21639&menuItemId=0) but most of the original components have been replaced. The only stock components left are the frame, rear wheel, rear mech, front mech, shifters, seat and seat post.

Over its life, I've upgraded to a Fox DHX air 5.0, Marzocchi Bomber 55s, Avid Juicy Seven brakes with 203mm rotors, Sun Double Track front wheel with Reverse 20mm bolt through hub, DMR Wing bars, Race Face b/b, Gravity crankset with bashguard, odi lock-on grips, and DMR V8 pedals.

Before you read any further, you should know that the forks are essentially broken - the lockout has blown and the rebound damping is shot, so they're pretty uncontrolled. Still rideable, but it's necessary to replace them. The forks failed at Brechfa a month ago, but I was still able to ride a lot of trails - it was just a little harder to control! The drivetrain is a little worn, but got a fair few miles in it yet. The rear wheel has some pretty serious dings, as you can see in the photos, one ding is right on the seam and has split a little - i have been riding it like that for two years now, so I don't think it's too much of a problem. That particular one happened on a dh trail at Ambergate in Derbyshire, where the rocks are really unforgiving. The brake calipers could do with a service, as the pistons don't return very well, but the brakes are good, and don't need bleeding. The B/B was new in March this year so should be good for a fair while yet.

The bike's seen a lot of action, including a few week-long xc trips all over Wales and Scotland (most of the 7 stanes), trips to Cwm Carn downhill course, chicksands, street riding, some xc and dh in Derbyshire and the Peaks, Cannock, and various other trail centres, and even some road miles. I've jumped it, dropped it, crashed it, put it in and out of endless car boots and backs of vans, and generally beaten it up. It is covered in scratches, but no dents that I can see, so I assume the frame is still in good condition. It's capable of fast dh, it's stable and predictable, and can also climb (just be prepared to work for it). It's essentially a really good heavy-duty all-rounder, and if you replace the forks and look after it, it'll be a great bike. If you do replace the forks, I'd suggest you either go for slightly less travel, or the same (160mm), as any longer will make it too slack for general riding.

You can also see in the photos that I've ground down the shifters a bit to make them more thumb-friendly when it all gets a bit loose, and there's a bit of foam in the front mech to keep the crap out.

I'm asking £550 ono for it, if you can pick it up, or I might be able to arrange a drop off somewhere. If necessary, I can organise a courier, at the buyer's cost.

Contact me at tom.geraghty@yahoo.co.uk or @tom_geraghty on twitter for more information.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

For sale: 2006 Specialized Enduro with upgrades and experience!

2010-08-14T18:48:00.001+01:00

After just less than 4 years riding this little beast, I'm selling it. I've bought myself a beautiful new Trek Scratch Air 8 to replace it, and hopefully do the Megavalanche in 2011.

The bike's seen a lot of action, including a few week-long xc trips all over Wales and Scotland, trips to Cwm Carn downhill course, chicksands, street riding, some xc and dh in Derbyshire and the Peaks, Cannock, and various other trail centres, and even some road miles. I've jumped it, dropped it, crashed it, put it in and out of endless car boots and backs of vans, and generally beaten it up. It is covered in scratches, but no dents that I can see, so I assume the frame is still in good condition. It's capable of fast dh, it's stable and predictable, and can also climb (just be prepared to work for it). It's essentially a really good heavy-duty all-rounder, and if you replace the forks and look after it, it'll be a great bike. If you do replace the forks, I'd suggest you either go for slightly less travel, or the same (160mm), as any longer will make it too slack for general riding.

I'm asking £550 ono for it, if you can pick it up, or I might be able to arrange a drop off somewhere. If necessary, I can organise a courier, at the buyer's cost.

Contact me at tom.geraghty@yahoo.co.uk or @tom_geraghty on twitter for more information.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Being an IT manager - 5 great things about the job

2010-08-06T12:44:00.001+01:00

Every day (well, almost every day) is different. From installing a new server, setting up a new office, troubleshooting a problem, helping users, managing finance, dealing with suppliers, analysing contracts, planning strategy, marketing, designing web sites, advising clients, researching and learning about new technology, attending seminars and conferences, travelling to different sites, analysing statistics, to managing IT security, and everything else. The role of IT management is pretty wide-ranging. If you like to sit by yourself, at your computer, and silently work on code, IT management is not for you. If you enjoy varied work, dealing with people as well as technology, and can understand and enjoy both short and long-term business strategies, you'll probably enjoy IT management.

You get to play with, and actually use, new technology. Businesses today need to embrace new technology in order to stay ahead, or simply keep up with the competition. From the newest mobile handsets, cutting-edge servers and routers, to testing new software packages, it's essential that you keep yourself and the business up to date. You're still going to babysit old technology, but it's always fun to test out new tech.

Sometimes, you can be a hero, of sorts. If a disaster occurs, it's often entirely upon you to fix it, and people will be grateful to you when you get it sorted out. From an office being burgled, and having to quickly replace and set up new hardware, to restoring an important file from a backup when somebody accidentally deletes a presentation 30 minutes before they're due to give it, you can step in and save the day. The flip-side of this is that it's also your responsibility to ensure disasters don't happen in the first place.

You're constantly learning. The landscape of IT is completely different today as it was 5 years ago. And in 5 years time it will again be completely different. IT is probably the fastest changing industry in the world, and doesn't suit people who don't want to constantly learn and develop themselves. To be effective as an IT manager, you need to read technology and business news and information every day. You need to attend seminars and conferences. Most importantly, in my opinion, you need to network with other technology professionals, as the amount you can learn from discussion with others is far more valuable than from any other source. It's also enjoyable, but it does take a lot of time (although it's a lot easier now, with the use of Twitter and other social networking tools).

You're important. From making people and processes more efficient, to cutting costs, to increasing turnover, improving profit margins, helping people work more effectively, helping people be more comfortable and happy in their jobs, providing tools to people, and effecting significant change in an organisation, you're inevitably going to be one of the people in the organisation that everyone knows, and if you do your job well, you'll make a big difference to the business, and everyone in it.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

The burqa ban in France, and why it is absurd.

2010-07-26T09:07:00.001+01:00

To paraphrase David Mitchell in his excellent piece on the Guardian CIF website, sometimes the French do something a bit mental. This time, it's banning the Burqa, the muslim head-dress for women that completely covers the face. Governments and legislatures should have no say in what civilians wear, excluding public safety, or private property (such as not wearing a motorcycle helmet in a bank).

I won't repeat what's already been said by David, suffice to say that while it's patently wrong to force someone (women or not) to wear something against their will, and it seems rather absurd to insist that someone cover their face in public for any reason other than it being very cold indeed, it's even more wrong for a government to begin legislating on items of clothing. Admittedly, we have laws about indecent exposure, but they are a separate issue, and people will have their own opinions. This particular piece of legislation covers Burqas, and Burqas only (as far as I'm aware). Other face-covering items of clothing, religious or not, are not included. So it introduces the ridiculous possibility of two people walking along the street, one voluntarily wearing a Burqa, and one (maybe against their will) wearing a balaclava - but it's the one wearing the Burqa that receives a fine.

Ultimately, the issue seems to be about bashing Islam, rather than about seriously dealing with the underlying issues. If you want to combat women being forced to wear clothing against their will, legislate against it, and rigorously enforce the law. If you feel that people have to show their faces in public at all times, legislate that way (although I'd disagree with that, too).

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

5 things that bug me about working in IT

2010-07-21T12:34:00.001+01:00

IP addresses.

You can't take them with you. In a business with a number of offices or sites, you'll have a collection of WAN IP addresses, and these will be pretty important to know. Routers all over the business will use them to route traffic to the different sites. Invariably, and usually for historical or internally political reasons, these connections may be with different ISP's. However, if you want to change the ISP, you'll have to accept that the IP address will change, and the amount of work that entails may well put you off changing ISP. The same (usually) goes for when an office is relocated - even if you retain the ISP, you may not be able to retain the same IP address.

Whether IPv6 will affect this at all, I'm not sure. Certainly, the pool of available addresses will be so large that ISP's won't feel the need to hoard them, but the logistics of moving IP addresses (as far as the ISP is concerned) may still be prohibitively complicated.

Still, wouldn't it be nice if you could get what amounts to a MAC (Migration Authorisation Code) for your IP address, and switch providers without a massive overhaul of your router configurations?

Constantly growing system requirements

In the past 10 years or so, I've always owned a car that had roughly the same size engine, though they have got progressively more efficient over that period. Over the same period, a desktop machine has gone from 256MB to 2.5GB of RAM. That's a ten-fold increase, on a standard desktop machine. It's not quite as simple to compare processors, since we've moved from single cores to multiple cores, but it's safe to say that the computing power has increased dramatically, and so has the power consumption. Granted, the power consumption per unit of performance may well have improved, but keeping up with the system requirements of operating systems and general software can still be quite expensive.

The compromise between usability and security/uniformity

The most stable and secure desktop machine would be one that only has one user, no network connection, and one button (which would be an on/off button). The most "usable" machine (from the user's immediate point of view) is the one where they can do anything they want, including installing hardware and software, browsing any site on the web, accessing any resource, and physically moving and using the machine anywhere they want, and using any connection. Of course, that scenario would last probably less than an hour before the machine was infected with malware, running slowly due to hundreds of software packages vying for resources, someone has accessed and transmitted confidential material, and put the business at risk. The compromise is somewhere in the middle. I've usually leaned towards a more libertarian view, allowing users to install certain software packages, and have a certain amount of control over their machines, while web traffic, data use, and email usage is logged and recorded (but rarely blocked). For notebook users, this is fairly critical, and in general it works fairly well, with users being aware that they're being trusted to not abuse the responsibility they're given. In a much larger organisation, this would be far more difficult to manage, so I'm fairly lucky in that respect.

Updates.

For the past few years, I don't think I've ever had a completely pending-update-free WSUS (the Microsoft server that allows administrators to control windows updates). It's very difficult to keep up with the constant stream of updates from MS, and even once they checked and approved, you've then got to deal with users who will be annoyed and frustrated by the updates being applied, and (on occasion) a reboot being required. Updates to servers mean downtime for reboots, out-of-hours working to make sure users don't get affected, and potential for problems if the update causes some unforeseen problem.

But MS isn't even the worst offender. Java seem to release updates to the runtime environment almost every month, and there's no central management available. Adobe and Apple are just as bad, and Apple even try to bundle their other software packages with each update. It would be nice if MS, Adobe, Apple, Sun, etc, could all get together and establish a common update-approval management method.

Email.

Email, essentially, is outdated, ill-conceived, awkward to manage and maintain, and doesn't even do a very good job. Anyone who's used (and understood) Google Wave realises that email must be on its way out soon. There is no real sender verification, spam and viruses are so massively intrusive that whole industries have developed around making email secure. The conversation style of email makes discussion (and business) difficult when dealing with more than two correspondents - send an email to two people, and get two replies. Trying to retain some sort of thread of the conversation is difficult at best, and with four or more recipients, practically impossible. Bringing someone into a discussion part-way through is difficult, as they cannot easily view the thread of conversation before them.

Managing the size of mailboxes, archives, mailbox permissions, attachments, addresses, security and safety is far more work than it should be. I can't wait for email V2.

Next time, I'll find five good things about working in IT!

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Asus G73JH - faulty screen, warranty process review.

2010-06-15T11:49:00.001+01:00

I recently purchased an Asus G73JH, to replace the ageing and dilapidated Sony Vaio AR21S that I'd had for a few years. The idea behind the Asus was that it's a very powerful unit, comes with a 2 year warranty, and will serve as an excellent test bed for 64-bit applications in the business. Over about a month of testing, it's provided us with some valuable data and enabled us to start using 64-bit software, including powerful mapping and video packages that can make good use of the 8GB of RAM in the unit. We were also able to find out well in advance of any issues with commonly used software, such as the Cisco VPN client (now available in 64-bit, but only very recently). Printer drivers were quite a hurdle, but have mostly now been sorted out.

Over the Sony, it certainly increased my productivity. The battery life was much better, allowing me to use it on my commute on the train, and the built-in webcam and microphone is handy for communicating either using messenger packages, skype, or webex conferencing.

Due to the performance and large memory, I'm also able to run up to 5 virtual machines at the same time. I currently have two virtual servers (Server 2008 R2), one XP SP3, and one Win7 virtual machine. The XP machine allows me to use old legacy apps, and the win7 is a useful testbed. The servers are very useful for testing as well, and using as a "mobile" domain controller for setting up or troubleshooting remote sites.

Unfortunately, yesterday (14 June), the screen on the Asus faulted, as you can see from the photo. It's a common enough fault, according to a few forums. I'd already filled out the registration on the Asus site for the two year warranty, and I've now contacted Corine this morning (15 June) at the Asus warranty team. Asus have asked for images of the faulty screen, to determine whether it's a warranty issue or not. Standard procedure, I expect. I've also contacted Asus UK via twitter, but haven't had a response yet.

Given how new the machine is, I'm expecting a replacement unit to be delivered, so I can swap out the drives and send the faulty one back. If Asus insist on repairing the unit, I'll simply ask for a refund instead, and (sadly) look for an alternative notebook. I'm interested to see how Asus perform at the warranty process, as for such a tech-savvy operation, I'd expect them to get on top of technical faults like this pretty sharply. Asus aren't a massive volume, cheap manufacturer - quite the opposite - so they need to look after their clients. If you buy a Packard Bell from PC World, you might expect warranty issues to be rather slow and drawn out, but not with Asus.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Asus G73JH - faulty screen, warranty process review.

2010-06-15T11:11:00.001+01:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Mountain biking in Scotland with some mates.

2010-05-28T14:20:00.001+01:00

I and a few mates spent a week biking in Scotland at the start of May this year. Had a great time - biked about 100 miles, which on these trails, is quite a lot. We rode Ae, Dalbeattie, Kirroughtree, and Mabie. Here's the video.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Scotland 2010 - mountain biking at Mabie, Ae, Kirroughtree, and Dalbeattie

2010-05-28T10:53:00.000+01:00

Victoria Baths in Nottingham - Were you one of the thousands who petitioned the Council not to close them?

2010-05-28T08:21:00.001+01:00

Were you one of the thousands who petitioned the Council not to close the Baths? Or one of the many hundreds who took to the streets to protest? Perhaps you were one the thousands who told the Council that you wanted the current building improved rather than demolished and made smaller. Or maybe one of the hundreds who emailed to object to the plans for the unwanted replacement building (which the Council gave permission to last week).

The Council has deliberately ignored you. But you CAN do something about it.

Email Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Tell him that the Council has no democratic mandate to go ahead with their plans. It was not in their manifesto. It is not what was asked for in the consultations, where the over-whelming response (80%) was to keep the existing centre but to improve it and where the majority voted the design option which retained most of the existing facilities and not the Council's preferred option. Tell him that this important local issue needs to put before an electorate next year. Any development must be postponed until after the forthcoming local elections. Ask him respectfully not to give the Council consent to demolish the Victoria Leisure Centre.

Please - act now before this last window of opportunity to stop the Council closes and the Baths are gone for good.

Please send your emails to eric@ericpickles.com and copy in Bob Neill neillb@parliament.uk

Best wishes,

Save Victoria Baths

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Victoria Baths in Nottingham - Were you one of the thousands who petitioned the Council not to close them?

2010-05-27T18:44:00.001+01:00

The Council has deliberately ignored you. But you CAN do something about it.

Email Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Please - act now before this last window of opportunity to stop the Council closes and the Baths are gone for good.

Please send your emails to eric@ericpickles.com and copy in Bob Neill neillb@parliament.uk

Best wishes,

Save Victoria Baths

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

iphones in business - a trial at Berrys

2010-04-27T11:44:00.001+01:00

The company i work (Berrys) for is a "people" business. We don't manufacture or distribute goods, we just sell our time. Specifically, Berrys are property and business consultants, but that encompasses a pretty wide range of services, to individuals, other businesses, and the public sector.

Because of this, we need to engage and communicate with our exisitng and potential clients, using whatever format, tool, or technology possible. We're looking quite hard at twitter and the other social media and networks, and because of this, we've just acquired a bunch of iphones to trial with a few key staff to see how we can make the best use of the various technologies. The plan is to initially simply use mobile email (set up with exchange was a breeze), twitter, and audioboo to kick things off, then moving on to other platforms and technologies.

I'm also very interested to see what use our surveyors can make of the apps and tools based around GPS and mapping. A lot of our work is related to property and land, so to be able to use mapping and surveying tools on an iphone, while on-site, is potentially a great boost to productivity. We're even looking at developing our own property app for the iphone.

My only concern so far is the lack of centralised management of the handset fleet, but if using iphones is good for business, I'll just have to put up with that.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Windows cannot connect to the printer 0x00000999 (AKA Please, MS, give me a descriptive error.)

2010-04-26T10:15:00.001+01:00

I got a call from one of the offices today about the fact that nobody could print to any of the networked printers.

Simple problem, i thought - probably the print spooler service has failed, or the print server is down, or something. Logged onto their print server, and it seems fine, it could print test pages and everything. It had shut down over the weekend though, due to a power cut, so i wondered if a service hadn't started correctly. A quick look at the services showed everything to be ok, so i did what every self-respecting sysadmin does when in doubt: a reboot.

It took a while to come back online (it's an old server now), but the same problem was occurring. I wasn't getting much joy with googling the error, but had to persist. Eventually, i found a list of codes that are generally unrelated to the actual problem i was getting, but had this specific error code listed as being a problem with clocks being out of synch.

Ahah! A quick check on the server clock, and yes, the time and date were wrong - much have been the power cut, and probably a failing CMOS battery, which of course on a server that never usually shuts down, you'd never notice.

Flicked the time and date back to the present, and within a matter of seconds, people are printing away with glee.

Just a note to MS: I'd have saved about 20 minutes work if your error could say something a little more descriptive. Just saying.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Libellous web content and trying to remove it. (AKA Thank God for google alerts.)

2010-04-23T14:52:00.001+01:00

I have a google alert set up for my name, and I think everyone should do the same - i get a few each week, and they're usually innocuous little caches of tweets or reposts of articles, or about other Tom Geraghty's, however, I got one today that shocked me, a little.

There's a website, hosted in Arizona USA, that purports to be a kind of consumer review / warning web site, where people can post about bad service they've received or when they feel they've been crossed by someone they paid to do something.

So, I was a little surprised to see that someone has reported me on there for taking a deposit and then not doing the work (website design). I've never worked in the US, never worked on the type of project they describe, and never take deposits for web design work anyway. It''s either a blatantly malicious post, by someone who doesn't like me (I can't think who, though. I'm a lovely person to know!), or, and this is more likely - it's extortion. I've sent them an email requesting they take down the content, and requesting the identity and/or IP address of the original poster, but I suspect that I'll hear back that they'll take it down for some "admin fee".

I'll update when and if I hear anything. I'm considering going to the police, but I don't want to waste their time on something so trivial. If i do get asked for money, of course, I'll go straight to the police then.

If anyone has any tips, or advice on how to get it taken down, I'd be very grateful.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

The Lib Dem manifesto.

2010-04-20T21:46:00.001+01:00

Posted via web from Tom Geraghty

Relay Writing - collaborative story telling

2010-04-07T14:42:00.001+01:00

Picture the scene: it's 2003, and I and my (then to-be) wife are sat in a bar in Nottingham, throwing around ideas about writing stories, novels, screenplays and suchlike. We often find ourselves making up little screenplays and stories, and 99% of the time, nothing comes of them.

That night, however, we came up with an idea. Why not create a website where everyone can write a bit of the story? This being 2003, there wasn't too much in the way of social media and web 2.0, so it was more of a novel idea than it would seem now. We came up with a name: "Relay Writing" and decided to initially have four genres of story for visitors to read and add to - Romance, Thriller, SciFi, and Horror. A few days later, the website was live, though pretty ugly, and a few days after that, a new one was online that looked much nicer!

Over the following few years, we received the odd submission, and accept most of them. Some of the rejected ones were either plainly insane, or simply terribly written. We never rejected any on plot alone, as that seemed to go against the ethic of allowing the world to write the story. It's pretty clear that the romance and thriller stories are by far the most popular, but we're not sure why. It's either that these genres are both easier and more enjoyable to write, or that our initial chapter wasn't good or interesting enough to inspire people to follow it up (or maybe it was too good!...)

In 2006, the website got listed in the Writer's Digest top 100 web sites, which got us quite a bit more traffic and a lot more submissions.

Then after a while, essentially, we forgot about it.

Up until March 2010. After redeveloping another web site using Word Press, I realised that it'd be a great way to reinvigorate Relay Writing, and improve the functionality of it, making it far easier for people to subscribe to updates, post replies, comments, share the stories, and of course submit new chapters. I'm still trying to work out how to order the chapters in the correct way though...

So there we have it - the new Relay Writing web site. Head over and check it out, let us know what you think, and get writing.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Berrys Property and Business - developing a website in wordpress

2010-04-06T15:26:00.001+01:00

The Berrys website was last developed in 2006, or maybe early 2007. This was just before the whole web 2.0 thing really kicked off, and we thought we were being pretty modern using CSS instead of nested tables for layout... At the time, it was pretty impressive - fast loading, clean layout, some RSS feeds, a dynamic asp.net news function, and LOADS of content. All that content did ok on google, for a fair while, and we did ok on search engine optimisation. But, as Christian Payne recently pointed out, compared to today's sites, we may as well have pinned a bunch of business cards to the wall and hoped people would read them.

In the early part of 2009, i decided to redevelop our web site, but with zero budget, and skills limited to a bit of html and (very) basic php, I had no idea where to start. I knew i wanted it to be dynamic, but I didn't know how. We also had the issue of our estate agency part of the business - so we had to list our properties online. I didn't know how to set up a site that could handle property listings, other than using dreamweaver to edit a page in the old-school fashion. I didn't think it would be appropriate for our agency administrator to learn html just to upload our properties to the web, so something else had to be found. Various off-the-shelf estate agency packages were available, but either rubbish, expensive, or blatantly US-oriented. I also looked at full-blown CMS packages, but they were either way too cumbersome, or expensive (again), or lacked support. Then I came across WordPress. I'd heard of people using it for business sites before, but was a bit wary of using a blogging platform for our business site. Still, I tried it out on a test install and it seemed to do a pretty good job.

By now, it was January 2010 (a lot had happened in the mean time, and I'm very busy and important). I needed to get a crack on, so i started working from home for 3 or 4 days a week. I started off by working out how to manage the structure of the site - what categories I'd use, whether I'd use pages or posts for various content, and of course, the estate agency section. I didn't want our agency staff to have to do to much replicated work, so wanted the process of getting a property online to be as automated as possible. While digging around in the dashboard, I realised that Wordpress can accept email blog posts, and that gave me an idea. We use SharePoint to manage our property lists internally, and a number of staff have permissions to add properties to it. I could get SharePoint to execute a workflow when a new property is added, which sends an email to the WordPress site, containing lookups from the property list, such as name, address, location, price, etc! Awesome.

It took a while to set up properly, and there are still a few things I'd like to improve (SharePoint workflows out of the box, can't have more than one lookup in the subject line, or attach images or attachments from the list item). The workflow does a good job though, and sends a few other emails to various people when a new property is uploaded, to make sure someone logs in to check the post and publish it, and line managers are aware it's gone live. The property section is split into commercial, residential, agricultural and developments. Getting a decision on the different categories was somewhat more difficult than you'd expect...

We now have a Berrys people section too, where visitors can find out more about each member of staff - the idea being that our business is solely about people and relationships, and potential clients should feel they can engage with us easily. Each person has their own page, with a bit of history, a photo, and links to other social networks such as twitter and LinkedIn (check mine out - Tom Geraghty). I'm also encouraging our staff to start some blogs, and we have a news category for the more announcement-style news, rather than the more opinion-based blog articles.

The design is based on a theme called Arras, with a lot of changes and adjustments. That theme was used so we could have a scrolling front page image listing our various services to clients. It works well as a concept, displaying our services without the need to have a long and boring list. We've also got some handy little social media buttons on the right hand side of the pages, enabling our users to share posts on the main social networks.

There's actually still a lot of work to do, such as fixing some of the issues resulting from the site being hosted on IIS, and various little formatting tweaks that will undoubtedly take just as long as the design of the site in the first instance. The design has a few changes to be made, I'm looking at plugins to help with redirecting 404 errors from the old site links, still trying to get content from various people in the company, and I'm still looking at ways to speed it up as well. In the mean time, we're hoping that google starts to re-index the site properly, and quickly.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

MBUK magazine July 1991. Mountain biking in the early days.

2010-03-30T20:28:00.001+01:00

I ride mountain bikes, and I have done since I was about, um, 7, or maybe 8. My first "mountain bike" was a Raleigh Marauder, but my first actual mountain bike was a Marin Bolinas Ridge. (I shall blog about that little beauty another time.)

About the time I got that Marin, or a little before, I started buying MBUK Magazine. I kept most of them too. I dug this copy out recently, and I'm selling it on Ebay. I almost hope nobody buys it, as it'll then justify me keeping the piles of magazines for another couple of decades.

Just check it out though. Mountain biking was so different back then. We didn't know what we were doing! Everything was bright colours, because we wanted to stand out (and it was the early 90's, of course!), and the bike geometry was all about leaning forward, keeping narrow, big gears and gimmicks. Bar ends, "Power Grips", grip shift, "BioPace" chainrings, purple anodising EVERYTHING, seat bags, "DCD's", bottle cages, pumps, and toe clips.

I suppose we still have the gimmicks to some degree.

Thank God bike helmets are at least a little better looking now.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Not chance, not design, but evolution.

2010-03-28T19:18:00.001+01:00

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

I got a new lens!

2010-03-28T17:34:00.001+01:00

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

New tyres and great service at Your Tyres and Auto Care in Nottingham.

2010-03-12T10:55:00.001Z

I just got my new tyres fitted at a little garage on Little Tennis Street in Nottingham, called Your Tyres and Auto Care. Not a very catchy name, but descriptive! I ordered the tyres through Black Circles, who provide good tyres at good prices - and while I had a bit of a problem with the first garage I was booked into, Black Circles got right on the case and sent me to Your Tyres and Auto Care a week or so later.

Simon, the owner of YTAC, is a very friendly bloke and was up bright an early to fit my tyres at 8:30am, and even offered me a cup of tea. The actual fitting didn't take long, and Simon did a neat job of balancing the wheels too, being sure to take the old weights off the wheel, unlike some other garages, who just seem to stick more and more weights on.

The garage is the usual small lock-up affair, but he's made a real effort to put across a far more professional and tidy image than most small garages. A nice, tidy, and well equipped office sits to the side of the working area, and the whole place in general gives you the impression that he's going to look after your car. Simon told me that he's worked for various garages and garage chains in the past, such as kwik fit, but grew tired of earning money for other people and decided to set up on his own. Unfortunately, the recession hit just as he was starting out, but he seems to have weathered it well and should have a good running start when business picks up again.

The tyres I got were some grippy looking Falkens, and YTAC are a Falken specialist apparently, but also offer other makes and part-worns too. Simon told me he also does servicing and repairs, and while I usually get my car serviced at a main dealer, I wouldn't hesitate to ask him to do it instead.

In a month or so, I'll need some more tyres (for the rear wheels this time), and I'll definitely be going back.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

Web content filtering - an alternative?

2010-03-09T15:13:00.001Z

I've been an IT manager for a while now, and at least once a week, I get a phone call or email from a company offering a web filtering solution, and extolling the virtues of blocking access to various portions of the internet. I even got an email last week with the subject line "Why you HAVE to block Facebook!". I don't HAVE to block Facebook. That, in my opinion, would be counter-productive.

I thought about this topic a bit more after a chat last week with Christian Payne, and listening to his audioboo (http://audioboo.fm/boos/102631-berrys-property-business-consultants-berrys) regarding the controls that IT departments exert over their users' internet access.

Just to be clear, I do block some websites. Those that are illegal, or possibly illegal, offensive, or harmful (sites hosting malware, for example) - not blocking those sites would just be dumb. We also have a certain degree of monitoring available - if a manager wants to know what websites an employee has been looking at, i can tell them. I certainly don't have the time or inclination to regularly check what people are looking at online, because to be honest, it's going to be 90% Facebook, BBC, eBay, and holiday sites, along with a huge amount of business-related content. We do have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) of course, which specifies what staff may or may not do with their internet and email access.

Ultimately though, why do people assume that it's the responsibility of the IT department to control what employees do online? Is it the responsibility of the facilities department to control where people walk and where they sit down? And, of course, if someone is on Facebook, does it follow that they're not working? I dip in and out of social networks all day. I use them to keep in touch with friends, colleagues, and professional contacts. I read blogs, articles, and tech news online throughout the day, and all our staff can do the same. It doesn't affect the quality or amount of work I do, and it helps me keep up to date and get stuff done. So not only is it not IT's responsibility to ensure staff work hard, it doesn't follow that internet access = leisure.

Work styles have definitely changed over the years. Now, I work in the office, on the train, in coffee shops, in the car, and at home, at various and unpredictable times of day. If I'm going to allow my work life to intrude on my personal life to such a degree, is it not fair to allow my personal life to intrude into my work life, vice versa? If i can organise my social life through Facebook while at work, I'm likely to be far more motivated and happy to be in the office than if I'm segregated and secluded during [insert office hours here]. I often hear various statistics about how many hours per day are "wasted" through non-business related internet browsing, and suggestions that content filtering can "fix" this. If someone spends two hours online per day, and you take that internet access away, does it follow that those two hours will now be used for work purposes, as efficiently as the rest of the day? Or is it possible that an employee may work far more efficiently with a few minutes "browsing break" every hour, for example?

Of course, some employees don't always work as hard as the employers would like, and sometimes it can be a problem. It may be that their quality of work is slipping, or their timekeeping is sloppy, or that they're spending far too long chatting to colleagues, or staring out of the window for hours on end, or, maybe, browsing the internet for too long per day. Out of those problems, four of them typically come under the remit of the line manager to rectify, while one, oddly, becomes the remit of the IT department. What's further odd is that the solution is so often to simply remove access, rather than address the actual problem. Maybe the employee is not motivated, maybe they're stressed, or depressed, overloaded or even just don't have anything to do. If they were staring out of the window for hours, the good manager would certainly try to work out what the problem is, and address it. If they're browsing the internet for hours, the solution is usually the equivalent of bricking up the window.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty

6music, and why it's worth keeping.

2010-03-02T13:14:00.001Z

Dear Sir/Madam (at the BBC Trust),

It is with terrible dismay that I learned of the probable demise of the BBC 6Music radio station. I have listened to this station ever since it came on air, at first solely through the internet, and then via digital radio too. In fact, it was the sole reason for me to buy a digital radio a few years ago (a not inconsiderable investment). I now listen at home via the radio, when working (online), and on the move (via my mobile phone). 6music is the only radio station to play new and old, independent, and intelligent music, and without advertisements.

To close 6music would be an abomination in the eyes of all music lovers, not just in the UK, but worldwide. There is no other place on the airwaves where the DJs have so much control over the music that they play, and where so many of the DJs are musicians themselves. I cannot stress enough how culturally important 6music is to the UK, and I can quite imagine how John Peel would be responding to this news - I imagine I don't need to put words to his sadly departed voice.

6music is just about the only BBC product that I now consume, apart from a smattering of Radio 2 when I'm forced to listen to analogue radio, and a few BBC podcasts.

It alone is worth the licence fee. And for that reason, if 6music does close down, you'll not be getting my licence fee next year.

With sincere hope that you'll consider the opinions of a vast number of UK music lovers,

Tom Geraghty

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty - posterous blog

Jim Steel garage in beeston - bad customer service!

2010-03-01T10:30:00.001Z

Almost nothing bugs me more than bad customer service. I mean, it's not hard to be nice, or helpful, or apologetic when things go wrong. I've worked in retail, and while I might not have been 100% chirpy and helpful all of the time, I was well aware that if I was nice and helpful to the customers, it made their day better, and more importantly, mine!

This morning, I was booked in to get some new tyres fitted at Jim Steel Garages in Beeston, Nottingham. It was an order through black circles (www.blackcircles.co.uk), who I've used before and have excellent customer service. Jim Steel, on the other hand, are awful. I got there at 9:15am, and the guys were just opening the shutters. I walked into reception and explained that I had a booking through black circles, my name, reference number, and all that stuff. I could tell straight away that the girl on reception was not happy, nor optimistic about my chances of getting the tyres fitted. She said that i might not be able to get them done straight away, so I was crossing my fingers, hoping she meant i'd have to wait 15-20 minutes until they could do it. That's fine - i've got my emails to go through and a few calls to make.

She went to check with the mechanic and came back to say, essentially, i could either leave my car there for the morning and come back at 1pm (i live 30 minutes drive from this garage, so that's not happening), or come back mid afternoon. Mid afternoon is not a morning appointment, by my reckoning. After some (well, not much) deliberation, I said I'd have to leave it, and see what I could organise.

Back at the (home) office, I was able to ring black circles to rearrange fitting. I have to admit, they are really efficient. Answered the phone straight away, found my order, apologised for the hassle, and rearranged for a week or so at a much more local garage.

I can definitely recommend black circles for ordering tyres online, as they're not just cheap, but have a great range, and good service. Incidentally, my last tyres from them were Toyo Proxes (similar to Eagle F1s), and they're amazing. This time, I've got some Falken FK 452s - they look good and have great reviews, so it'll be nice to see how they go.

I like having new tyres.

Posted via email from Tom Geraghty - posterous blog

Electric Kitten update

2010-02-04T15:17:00.001Z

Well to be fair, not much has happened regarding the chargeback for Electric Kitten hosting fees, but I have found that it's not just me having this problem!

Adam Wilcox has had the same issue with Electric Kitten charging him for a hosting account he doesn't have any more: http://adamwilcox.org/2009/electric-kitten-worst-hosting-company/

I've also audioboo'd about Electric Kitten here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/94155-electric-kitten-charged-me-for-hosting-that-i-don-t-have

(Is that the right term for the past tense of audioboo? Is audioboo a verb?)

Anyway, I still haven't heard back from Electric Kitten about the chargeback, even though I've emailed a few times to ask for their legal address and stuff, so I think I can assume they're going to ignore all correspondence anyway.

Posted via email from Tom's posterous

Gah! Electric kitten hosting have taken my money!

2010-01-24T10:48:00.001Z

I used to have an account with Electric Kitten Hosting, based in the US. They sold my account to another host, which annoyed me slightly, but that's just business.
This was a couple of years ago now, but on January 12th this year, they sent me an email saying they were about to charge me for my hosting! I emailed them back to inform them that, in fact, they no longer hosted my web site because they themselves had sold it to another company! I'll post the communication below for everyone to see.
When i got my credit card bill this month, i found that they had indeed taken my money. Of course, my credit card company are disputing the transaction, so I don't actually have to pay it (big advantage of only ever using a credit card online, rather than a debit card).
We'll see what Electric Kitten have to say when they get contacted by my credit card company.

Transcript below (start from the bottom!):

Re: Electric Kitten Hosting Billing Information

...

Mon, January 11, 2010 11:03:52 AM

Hi,
I haven't cancelled my account - you guys did. In 2008.
I've informed my credit card company not to pay any charges from electric kitten hosting, and action will be taken should you attempt to charge my card.
Yours,
Tom

Mon, January 11, 2010 10:59:47 AM

Hello,

Please open a cancellation ticket as mentioned below and as it is clearly posted on our policy page for your account to be canceled and for your information to be removed from our system.
We will not assume cancellation of any account if no cancellation request is received. You will be responsible for the entire renewal amount if not canceled according to the terms mentioned and agreed on upon sign up. Credit cards companies will not honor any dispute if it is not complying to terms.

Regards,
Kim

Tom wrote:
> In that case, I'm contacting my credit card company and disputing the transaction. You yourselves moved my account to altodigital over two years ago, and i now pay them for hosting. You also incorrectly charged me last year, which i disputed but received no reply from electric kitten.
> Please forward this email to your accounts and complaints departments.
> Can you please let me know the full legal postal address of electric kitten, as my credit card company will require it in order to issue the chargeback documentation, and for any legal proceedings.
> Yours,
> Tom
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Electric Kitten Sales <sales@electrickitten.com>
> *To:* Tom
> *Sent:* Mon, January 11, 2010 10:47:09 AM
> *Subject:* Re: Electric Kitten Hosting Billing Information
>
> Hello,
>
> All renewals cancellation request must be submitted at least 30 days prior to the renewal date. We will not assume cancellation of any account if no cancellation request is received. You will be responsible for the entire renewal amount if not canceled according to the terms mentioned.
>
> To cancel your service, please open a ticket at *KittenSupport.net* <http://www.kittensupport.net> and include your domain name, full name, address, payment method and reason for cancellation.
> All cancellations must be done via the support system (*KittenSupport.net* <http://www.kittensupport.net>) to keep a form of record and request. This is for your security and ours.
>
> For more information please refer to: http://electrickitten.com/policies.html
>
> Regards,
> Kim
>
> Tom wrote:
>> To whom it may concern:
>> I no longer host my website with electric kitten, and therefore incur no fees. I sincerely hope you haven't charged my credit card with $60.
>> Please let me know asap whether you have in fact charged my card, as I will then need to dispute the transaction.
>> Yours,
>> Tom
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *From:* Electric Kitten Hosting <sales@electrickitten.com>
>> *To:* tom
>> *Cc:* sales@electrickitten.com
>> *Sent:* Mon, January 11, 2010 8:48:07 AM
>> *Subject:* Electric Kitten Hosting Billing Information
>>
>> Hello tom
>>
>> Your invoice 3969 in the amount of $60.00 has been processed and approved.
>>
>> -------------------------
>> Transaction ID: 2791848480
>> ------------------------
>>
>> NOTE: You will see a charge from Electric Kitten Hosting for this transaction.
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Electric Kitten Hosting http://www.electrickitten.com 1-310-882-5582
>> Please remember that support is quickest and fully secure at www.kittensupport.net <http://www.kittensupport.net> 24/7 We are here to help!
>>
>
>
> -- Thank you,
>
> Electric Kitten Sales
>
> +1.310.882.5582 Ext. 1
> www.ElectricKitten.com
> www.KittenSupport.net 24/7

Posted via email from Tom's posterous

A mini rant about music piracy

2009-11-18T10:03:00.000Z

Did "home taping" kill music? No. Did VHS video tapes kill the movie and TV industry? No. Do sky complain when you record their TV? No, they sell you the box to do it with, and give you instructions on how to copy it to DVD. Did these record-company execs never make a mix-tape for a friend?

What do the music industry do when faced with a new technology that puts control in consumers' hands? Freak out and threaten to sue every fucker on the planet for copyright infringement.

Maybe, if it were possible to buy reasonably-priced, drm-free digital media online, the piracy issue would be of little concern. Maybe, if there were actually a way to legally download the entire back catalogue of a particular artist, that would help. Maybe, if i could buy music online and then use it on any playback device, on the pc, mp3 player, car, phone, and also back it up, that would also reduce piracy. Maybe if, when you bought a CD, you knew what you were buying (the media? the licence? the digital rights?), it would clarify the situation a little.

If i buy a piece of art, and hang it on my wall, then decide to photocopy it and hang it on another wall, nobody gives a damn. If i lend it to a friend, that's cool. If he takes a photo of it, then hangs that on his wall, and gives me back the painting, nobody's going to come knocking my door down and asking for damages. Why is music a special case?

Case in point: a friend of mine, a couple of years back, recommended i listen to to some Biffy Clyro. So i downloaded a bunch of tracks from limewire (this was a while back). Really liked it, and downloaded loads more. What a bastard i am. Since then, i've bought four albums, and been to two (quite pricey) concerts. So yeah, the music industry really lost out there.