Home » Comment » Recent Articles:

Is summer officially here?

August 16, 2010 Comment

As summer is finally upon us Geraint Lewis ponders the role of IT in televised sports.

As I sit in the garden, the smell of burgers on the BBQ drifts across from my neighbours’, Wimbledon has started and we can look forward to the Open Championships in St Andrews in July. While there may be prettier, longer and more difficult courses in the world, the backdrop of the clubhouse, the testing fairways running alongside the beach, the huge greens and the famous ‘Road Hole’ make it my favourite venue.

… Continue Reading

Jobs for the troubleshooters

August 16, 2010 Comment

Steve White is having problems with compatibility…

Recently I was called to investigate a problem with a machine that was getting close to fully booting, and then blue-screened. Apparently there were no log files to help identify the problem, no way of instrumenting the machine to find out what was going on (and I found out afterwards that the support staff were being economical with the truth, there are plenty of ways of instrumenting it to find out, but since they hadn’t thought of them they chose not to mention them). The red herring was that this was first boot following a major patch upgrade, so the effort went to rolling back the patch installation – still the machine would not boot.

… Continue Reading

The truth about man-motivation

August 16, 2010 Comment

In the first of his regular centre page spots in VitAL magazine, Noel Bruton* seeks to uncover the truth about motivation.

As the old joke goes, “I’m in shape – ‘round’ is a shape.” Perhaps my tendency to rotundity would have been lessened, had I paid greater heed some years ago to TV’s Mr Motivator. He appeared on UK breakfast television, clad in an outrageous spandex unitard and encouraged viewers to join him in a distant aerobic workout. But one thing ‘Mr Motivator’ could never have done was motivate me. Some viewers may have seen a friendly chap in a brightly coloured outfit, a persistent smile and a positive demeanour and decided to copy him as a way of capturing some of that joie-de-vivre, but not me. That’s only because I’m fundamentally non-athletic. I’d much rather exercise my mind than my body. Which is perhaps why what Mr Motivator motivated me to do was not what he intended, but instead to try to understand why what he does works for some and not others, and how I can make use of that understanding.

… Continue Reading

IT shows – added value or just a jolly?

August 16, 2010 Comment

In the current economic climate, Jonathan Westlake asks whether it’s worth taking a trip to that trade show.

The usual round of IT shows is upon us and I’m off to the IT Decisions show at the NEC, Birmingham in late June. I try and make the effort to attend at least one show a year but with the current economic climate are they worth it?

Let’s reflect on the perceived value first. Regardless of the show theme, various software/service and hardware vendors will on hand. Various workshops will also be available. Most shows for non-exhibiters are free and so from a knowledge acquisition/updating point of view the benefit can outweigh the cost of travel/a day away from the office.

… Continue Reading

Sales fatigue at the souk

June 21, 2010 Comment

For PGA IT manager Geraint Lewis, the arrival of spring brings the circling salesmen, sniffing out a freshly sprouted IT budget.

The Masters Tournament traditionally marks the start of the golf season, as Spring arrives in Augusta with an explosion of colour as the blossom on the course bursts into life. This year, if anything the anticipation of this great event was even bigger, given the return to golfing action of one Eldrick Woods, following his much publicised ‘fall from grace’ over the winter period.

… Continue Reading

Subscribe to the newsletter:

Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List icon Sign up for our Email Newsletter

Our Sponsors

Stay Connected

Bookmark and Share

Video

Features:

Doing more with less

August 16, 2010

Doing more with less

As the public sector cuts start to bite across the board, VitAL Magazine editor Matt Bailey speaks to West Lancashire Borough Council chief executive Bill Taylor MBE and finds out what one council in North West England can do with its IT in order to meet the challenge. It is certainly a time of upheaval, [...]

Greening the enterprise

August 16, 2010

Greening the enterprise

Kevin T McDonald, Washington USA-based senior information technology analyst and cloud strategist for ICF International Inc offers his perspective and strategies for greening your business. The planet has entered a new era where everything is on-demand. The public and private sectors are all in, with YouTube videos explaining everything, from how to play jacks to [...]

Entering the cloud

August 16, 2010

Entering the cloud

A timely and detailed guide as to how to embark on a cloud project, what to consider and how far to commit. John Rollason of NetApp heads into the cloud. Cloud computing is a reality, and it’s a force that I believe IT professionals need to come to terms with quickly. The economic motivation for [...]

What to do when you’ve been hacked

August 16, 2010

What to do when you’ve been hacked

As recent news reports prove, the problem of hacking is not going away, if anything it is increasing. Steve Smith, managing director of Pentura offers advice on what to do if you’ve been hacked. When your business discovers it has been hacked there are different mentalities on how to deal with it; for the Private [...]