Is summer officially here?

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.

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Jobs for the troubleshooters

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.

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The truth about man-motivation

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.

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IT shows – added value or just a jolly?

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.

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Sales fatigue at the souk

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.

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