2013

Office365 & Microsoft Lync - Server is Temporarily Unavailable

31/12/13 10:57 Filed in: Lync

Experienced an odd issue with clients being unable to logon to Microsoft Lync in Office365 - the error ‘The Server is Temporarily Unavailable’.
Click here for more

Comments

OCS 2007 R2 Hotfix Issue with OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi

18/12/13 09:25 Filed in: Lync

Yes, a blog about OCS 2007 R2....Click here for more

Comments

4G - EE or O2?

12/12/13 18:36 Filed in: Industry

Who do I use for 4G...and why?
Click here for more

Comments

Finding your iPhone UDID without iTunes

18/11/13 20:25 Filed in: Apple

So you’ve put the BETA IOS on your phone, and forgot to get your UUID number?
Click here for more

Comments

Running Terminal as a Different User

15/11/13 20:56 Filed in: Apple

How do you use Terminal as another user?
Click here for more

Comments

OSX 10.9 Mavericks and TRIM

23/10/13 09:11 Filed in: Apple

How to check to make sure TRIM is still turned on.
Click here for more

Comments

Can't download OSX Mavericks from the App Store?

21/10/13 10:02 Filed in: Apple

So they’ve released another GM of Mavericks - can’t download it from the App Store? Here’s why.
Click here for more

Comments

O2 & 4G

07/10/13 11:23 Filed in: Industry

O2 4G - What’s it like?
Click here for more

Comments

Making a Bootable OSX 10.9 Mavericks USB

04/10/13 15:09 Filed in: Apple

Making an OSX 10.9 Mavericks Bootable USB Key.

Click here for more

Comments

Windows 8.1 RTM Benchmarks

11/09/13 20:03 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Windows 8.1 RTM Feels Fast! Quick look at Benchmarks.
Click here for more

Comments

Parallels Desktop 9 Windows 7 Look

11/09/13 09:31 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Quick look at Parallels Desktop 9 Windows 7 Look
Click here for more

Comments

Mobile Platform Choice

08/09/13 21:14 Filed in: Industry

General rambling on the mobile platform choices out there.
Click here for more

Comments

VMWare Fusion 6/Parallels Desktop 9 Roundup

08/09/13 09:22 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Quick round-up of my recent blogs on VMWare Fusion 6 and Parallels Desktop 9.
Click here for more

Comments

VMWare Fusion 6 & Parallels Desktop 9 Benchmarks

06/09/13 23:26 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Some benchmark comparisons between Parallels Desktop 9 and VMWare Fusion 6.

Click here for more

Comments

VMWare Fusion 6

06/09/13 10:07 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Early run through of the newly issued VMWare Fusion 6 virtualisation package.
Click here for more

Comments

Parallels Desktop 9.0 - Pauses & USB Connections/Disconnections

31/08/13 16:43 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Issue with random pauses, and also USB devices randomly disconnecting & connecting.

Click here for more

Comments

Parallels Desktop 9.0 - Issue with iSight WebCam

31/08/13 16:32 Filed in: Apple,Windows

My iSight camera doesn’t play well with Parallels Desktop 9.0.
Click here for more

Comments

Parallels Desktop 9.0

31/08/13 16:07 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Early run through of the newly issued Parallels Desktop 9.0 virtualisation package.
Click here for more

Comments

NetAtmo Weather Station

14/08/13 10:49 Filed in: Apple,Industry

Basic review of the NetAtmo Weather Station.Click here for more

Comments

Lync 2013 Functionality Demos

09/08/13 16:22 Filed in: Lync

A run through of some of the functionalities within Microsoft Lync 2013.

Click here for more

Comments

Google Chrome showing your saved passwords

07/08/13 21:47 Filed in: Windows

In Google Chrome you can easily view your saved passwords.....
Click here for more

Comments

Embedding Video in Office

02/08/13 14:44 Filed in: Windows

How do you embed a video into a Microsoft Word document?
Click here for more

Comments

2012 iMac and the Fusion Drive

16/07/13 09:44 Filed in: Apple

Got a chance to play with a fusion-drive equipped iMac - what’s it like?
Click here for more

Comments

OSX Mavericks - Enable Access for Assistive Devices

12/07/13 16:43 Filed in: Apple

How do you Enable access for assistive devices on OSX Mavericks?
Click here for more

Comments

USB 3 - Real World Performance?

07/07/13 22:10 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Holy Stating the Obvious Batman - USB 3 is quicker - who knew?

Click here for more

Comments

Configuring Windows IIS ARR

21/06/13 13:01 Filed in: Windows,Lync

Details the processes involved in configuring Application Request Routing (ARR) for reverse proxy services.

Click here for more

Comments

Lync 2013 Schema Update Methods

30/05/13 17:45 Filed in: Lync

Let’s look at how to update the Active Directory Schema for Lync 2013…and what it does in the process.
Click here for more

Comments

Restoring a Lync 2010 Infrastructure

29/05/13 19:40 Filed in: Lync

How do you restore a broken Microsoft Lync 2010 System?
Click here for more

Comments

Lync Server 2010 Address Book Normalization

28/05/13 17:14 Filed in: Lync

Run through of Address Book Normalization in Lync 2010.
Click here for more

Comments

Testing Schema Updates

25/05/13 14:08 Filed in: Windows

How do you test schema updates in your systems?
Click here for more

Comments

Duplicating your Active Directory for a Test Environment

24/05/13 21:59 Filed in: Windows

How do you create a replica of your active directory for testing purposes?
Click here for more

Comments

Microsoft Lync - Ports for Remote Access

23/05/13 16:36 Filed in: Lync

Why 443 for remote access?
Click here for more

Comments

Redirecting Folders on Apple OSX

19/05/13 21:05 Filed in: Apple

How do you redirect folders in Apple OSX? It’s pretty easy.

Click here for more

Comments

Macbook Pro - SSD in Optical Drive Bay

19/05/13 20:48 Filed in: Apple

Can you put an SSD in the optical bay of an Apple Macbook Pro?
Click here for more

Comments

Optical Media - Your time is up

19/05/13 20:37 Filed in: Industry

Optical media - who needs it?
Click here for more

Comments

Why do I like Windows 8 so much?

18/05/13 20:46 Filed in: Windows

Why do I like Windows 8 so much? Some thoughts on that thing that’s called Windows 8.
Click here for more

Comments

Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 - Windows 8 Pro Tablet

17/05/13 20:42 Filed in: Windows

Early days opinion on the Lenovo Tablet 2 Windows 8 Pro Tablet. Updated 17 May 2013, and it’s not good.

Click here for more

Comments

Cannot remove Encrypted Volume after Mountion Lion Rebuild

16/05/13 19:43 Filed in: Apple

If you’ve rebuilt your Operating System on Mountain Lion, and previously you encrypted your TimeMachine backups, you may find you can’t repartition the drive. Here’s how to get around it.

Click here for more

Comments

Automating Common Administrative Tasks

15/05/13 20:08 Filed in: Windows,Lync

Another look at how to automate common tasks - making your administrator's life easier.

Click here for more

Comments

Accessing Apple HFS Volumes from Windows

07/05/13 21:22 Filed in: Apple,Windows

How can you access HFS+ Drives from a Windows PC.
Click here for more

Comments

Turn off OSX SafeSleep

04/05/13 19:35 Filed in: Apple

How to modify the sleep mode on an Apple OSX Laptop.
Click here for more

Comments

Odd Apple IOS Bug

01/05/13 21:59 Filed in: Apple

Here’s an odd little IOS Bug…about Obama.

Click here for more

Comments

Apple IOS - A Simple WANT

28/04/13 08:54 Filed in: Apple

A very simple thing for Apple iOS to deliver…Click here for more

Comments

Certificate Assignment Fails - "HTTPS Binding Not Found on Website"

28/04/13 08:14 Filed in: Lync

Issue with : “Https Binding not found on the web site.”
Click here for more

Comments

Running Windows 8 on VMWare Fusion 5 - on OSX

25/04/13 15:09 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Experiences of running Windows 8 on VMWare Fusion 5 - virtualised on OSX.

Click here for more

Comments

Running Windows 8 on Parallels 8 - on OSX

25/04/13 15:02 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Experiences of running Windows 8 on Parallels 8 - virtualised on OSX.

Click here for more

Comments

…and another thing!

25/04/13 14:58 Filed in: Industry,Apple

General rant about shopping.
Click here for more

Comments

Angel Eyes Update - BMW E92

24/04/13 13:50 Filed in: Cars

Upgrading of the BMW Angel Eyes.
Click here for more

Comments

Software/Music/Movie Piracy

24/04/13 08:47 Filed in: Industry

Am I the only one who thinks piracy is a bad thing….?
Click here for more

Comments

Creating a Ringtone in iTunes from any track

24/04/13 08:39 Filed in: Apple

How to use iTunes to make a ringtone from any track in your library.
Click here for more

Comments

Jawbone Jambox - Portable Music

24/04/13 08:32 Filed in: Industry

What do I think of it?
Click here for more

Comments

Technical Support - What's it for?

24/04/13 08:25 Filed in: Industry

Some musings over recent technical support encounters.
Click here for more

Comments

Reset lost Windows XP/Vista/7 or Windows 8 Password

24/04/13 08:08 Filed in: Windows

What to do if you’ve lost the password for a Windows machine.
Click here for more

Comments

PowerPoint of Doom

16/04/13 20:29 Filed in: Industry

Some general thoughts on running presentations.
Click here for more

Comments

Windows 8 Tablet - HP ElitePad

13/04/13 14:34 Filed in: Windows

Some thoughts on my HP ElitePad Windows 8 Pro Tablet.
Click here for more

Comments

Replacing the Microfilters on a BMW 3 Series

13/04/13 11:05 Filed in: Cars

How to replace the micro filters on a BMW 3 series - saving money on servicing.
Click here for more

Comments

Windows 8 Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel - Gone

11/04/13 22:31 Filed in: Windows

How do I get my touch keyboard icon back in my task bar?
Click here for more

Comments

Electronic Devices - Theft from Cars

10/04/13 21:42 Filed in: Industry

Interesting development on theft of electronic devices from cars.
Click here for more

Comments

iPad Mini Logitech Keyboard

10/04/13 21:25 Filed in: Apple

See how I’m getting on with the Logitech keyboard for the iPad mini.
Click here for more

Comments

What the Internet Used to Look Like

07/04/13 11:00 Filed in: Industry

Nostalgia is not as good as it used to be, is it?
Click here for more

Comments

Office/Lync 2013 Group Policy Templates

04/04/13 09:15 Filed in: Lync

Small article explaining how to install the Office 2013 Group Policy Templates.

Click here for more

Comments

Exchange ECP redirecting to OWA

02/04/13 15:46 Filed in: Exchange

How to resolve the Exchange Control Panel automatically redirecting to OWA.
Click here for more

Comments

Turning off notifications in OSX

29/03/13 11:56 Filed in: Apple

Quick one - how do you temporarily turn off OSX Mountain Lion notifications?
Click here for more

Comments

Exchange 2010 on Windows 2012

26/03/13 23:43 Filed in: Exchange

installing Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2012.
Click here for more

Comments

Removing an Exchange 2013 Schema Prep

26/03/13 20:41 Filed in: Exchange

How to un-prepare an AD Schema after preparing it for Exchange 2013.
Click here for more

Comments

Building an Exchange 2013 Server for Demo

25/03/13 17:16 Filed in: Lync,Windows,Exchange

I’ve been building up a number of machines for my demo environment - this one is for Exchange 2013. - a video in here shows the build process.

Click here for more

Comments

Building a Windows Server 2012 on VMWare Fusion

25/03/13 12:50 Filed in: Apple,Windows

Quick run-through of building a Windows 2012 Standard Edition Server using VMWare Fusion. It’s built on an SSD so pretty fast.
Click here for more

Comments

Installing a Lync 2013 Standard Edition Server

23/03/13 21:50 Filed in: Lync

Run through of installing a Lync 2013 server.
Click here for more

Comments

Quickly Bulk-Create lots of AD Users

23/03/13 20:32 Filed in: Windows

Quick blog showing a small script that can bulk create a lot of Active Directory users for you.
Click here for more

Comments

RapidWeaver - Wrong images in posts

23/03/13 20:30 Filed in: Apple

Rapidweaver keeps putting the wrong images in posts…Infuriating.
Click here for more

Comments

Change the format of OSX Screenshots

23/03/13 20:07 Filed in: Apple

How to change the format of OSX Screenshot files.
Click here for more

Comments

Changing the location of your screenshots on OSX

23/03/13 19:23 Filed in: Apple

Quick blog explaining how to change the folder location of your screen shots on OSX.
Click here for more

Comments

Telephony - Losing its importance?

23/03/13 19:01 Filed in: Lync,Industry

Blog looking at the importance of telephony - is it decreasing?
Click here for more

Comments

Unknown Number Rage

23/03/13 18:48 Filed in: Industry

Some random thoughts about how annoying I find blocked or unknown phone numbers.

Click here for more

Comments

OSX - Quick and easy way to lock your desktop

23/03/13 18:31 Filed in: Apple

I kinda missed the CTRL+ALT+DELETE quick way of locking your desktop when using OSX - but there’s an easy way to achieve something similar.

Click here for more

Comments

The Etiquette of Presence

23/03/13 18:24 Filed in: Lync

Some thoughts on around how users manage their presence status.
Click here for more

Comments

Installing Office Web Apps on Server 2012

22/03/13 21:01 Filed in: Windows,Lync

Quick run through of installing Office Web Applications on to Windows Server 2012.

Click here for more

Comments

Samsung 840 Series SSD in a Macbook Pro

22/03/13 16:55 Filed in: Apple

Quick early day review of the performance of the Samsung 840 500Gb SSD.
Click here for more

Comments

Macbook Pro - SSD Upgrade

22/03/13 14:38 Filed in: Apple

In this blog a look at how easy it is to upgrade your system drive in an OSX based Macbook Pro.

Click here for more

Comments

Activating Windows 8 from the Command Line

20/03/13 09:34 Filed in: Windows

Discusses how to activate Windows 8 from the Command line.
Click here for more

Comments

OSX and Virtualisation

20/03/13 09:21 Filed in: Apple,Lync

I yet again go on about how good OSX is at virtualisation.

Click here for more

Comments

UC Discussion Forum?

18/03/13 01:26 Filed in: Lync,Industry

Any room for a UC discussion forum?

Click here for more

Comments

Dual Homed Servers

13/03/13 12:53 Filed in: Lync,Windows

In this blog I look at how you can dual-network home a Windows server, and how you need to consider the network routing.

Click here for more

Comments

Apple - Where's the Think Different?

11/03/13 21:38 Filed in: Apple,Industry

Some thoughts about Apple, and what they’ve been up to recently.

Click here for more

Comments

Crashplan - A new low in Internet Backups

04/03/13 23:36 Filed in: Industry

Updated article about online backups. Originally started with Mozy, moved to Crashplan, and then finally landed on Backblaze.

Click here for more

Comments

Unified Communications - The Importance of Design

01/03/13 12:05 Filed in: Lync,Windows

Article discussing the importance of technical design for Unified Communications platforms.
Click here for more

Comments

TimeMachine - Restoring Hidden Files

01/03/13 12:01 Filed in: Apple

How do you find hidden files to restore in TimeMachine? Easy - see this blog.

Click here for more

Comments

WiFi Diagnostics on OSX

01/03/13 11:55 Filed in: Apple

Useful WiFi diagnostics utility on OSX.

Click here for more

Comments

Technical Writing - It's harder than you think

01/03/13 11:53 Filed in: Industry

Blog about technical writing and why it’s so hard. Of course there will be spelling & grammar mistakes in it….

Click here for more

Comments

Extracting Media from an iPod or iPhone

01/03/13 11:43 Filed in: Apple

Blog outlining how you can extract media from an Apple iPod or iPhone device.

Click here for more

Comments

Reporting on User Configurations in Lync 2010

01/03/13 11:37 Filed in: Lync

Blog outlining how you can report on your users of Lync 2010. Click here for more

Comments

Lync - Utilities & Plug-ins

01/03/13 11:34 Filed in: Lync,Windows

Blog outlining some of my favourite plug-ins for Microsoft Lync. Click here for more

Comments

HyperTerminal on Windows Vista/7/8/Server

01/03/13 11:32 Filed in: Windows

Do you ever miss HyperTerminal when you’re on a later Windows edition? If so, you should find this article interesting.

Click here for more

Comments

How to identify Enterprise Voice Users in Lync

01/03/13 10:39 Filed in: Lync

Blog detailing how you can report/identify Enterprise Voice users within Microsoft Lync.Click here for more

Comments

Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts

01/03/13 10:30 Filed in: Windows

A list of the more common Windows 8 shortcut keys.Click here for more

Comments

Policing Internet Usage

01/03/13 10:20 Filed in: Industry

Some general thoughts around how employer’s are portrayed as ‘policing’ internet usage. Click here for more

Comments

Storing Dropbox on an Encrypted Volume

28/02/13 08:38 Filed in: Apple

Outlines a process for ensuring that Dropbox storage is held on an encrypted disk image. Useful for laptop storage for example, where you want to ensure your data is protected. Click here for more

Comments

Automatically Deleting the Lync Address Books

28/02/13 00:58 Filed in: Lync,Scripting

When developing & supporting a Lync platform, it may become necessary to delete the local user’s address books. In this blog entry I detail a way of automating this process. It makes it far easier then trying to talk a user through how to do it themselves. Click here for more

Tags: LyncLync,Active Directory, Cisco,ScriptingScripting

Comments

Downloading the Address Book in Lync 2013

28/02/13 00:57 Filed in: Lync,Scripting

The location of the Address Books within Lync 2013 are different to that of previous iterations of the product. In this blog I look at where the files are now stored, and also how to affect the download delay for the Address Books. If you wish, you can set the address books to download immediately for example - very useful for testing.Click here for more

Tags: LyncLync,Active Directory, Cisco,Scripting Scripting

Comments

The iPad Mini

28/02/13 00:42 Filed in: Apple

The iPad Mini - pretty much everyone seems to love them, or, bizarrely, hate them with a passion. In here I talk about my own experiences and thoughts on the unit. Click here for more

Comments

OSX Utilities I couldn't live without

28/02/13 00:15 Filed in: Apple

Simple blog looking at some of the applications and utilities that enhance my usage of Apple’s most excellent OSX platform. Click here for more

Tags: Apple

Comments

Enabling Users for Lync Inside ADU&C

27/02/13 23:00 Filed in: Lync,Scripting

Why do things manually when there’s fast and automated ways of achieving things? In this blog I look at how to automate the enablement of users for Microsoft Lync - specifically, I add the ability to enable users to the Active Directory Users & Computers Console therefore simplifying the work-flow for user-enablement. Click here for more

Tags: LyncLync,Active Directory, Cisco,Scripting Active DirectoryLync,Active Directory, Cisco,ScriptingScripting

Comments

TimeMachine - What's being backed up?

27/01/13 22:51 Filed in: Apple

TimeMachine is a great backup technology - but sometimes it can appear to be repeatedly backing up a lot of data. In here I look at a very handy utility that can help you determine why TimeMachine is backing up a lot of stuff with each backup, and help you make your backups more efficient.Click here for more

Tags: Apple

Comments

Active Directory Migrations - Why so hard?

20/01/13 01:27 Filed in: Windows

For some reason the processes and requirements for carrying out directory migrations are often underestimated. In here I talk about some of the issues you may encounter. Click here for more

Comments