BYOD

With mobile technology becoming more and more accessible to the general user and the advancement of such technology over the years, it's not uncommon to see people taking their tech into work with them or using such technology instead of work issued equipment.

BYOD or Bring Your Own Device has steadily become a bit of a nightmare for IT Departments because staff are keen to use their devices through work networks, but as ownership of the equipment belongs to the user and not the company, it becomes hard to impose restrictions upon the levels in which the user may gain access.

Is there an answer? Not an immediate or clear one, no. The reason is that staff want access but don't want their equipment touched by the IT team and the IT team don't want the users to have unchecked access or confidential work data on a personal device.

There are a few options:-

• Have a "Use our equipment or nothing" policy. This will cost the company a little more if technology is required. It will also mean that the user may possibly carry around two phone devices, but the security control on the work device remains under the control of the company.
• Allow personal devices within the workplace and hook them onto an independent WiFi router which bypasses the main network, keeping the two separate.
• Allow personal devices to be used, but maintain a strict watch over what kind of company information is accessible to those users

I don't think that there is a perfect scenario. Each company will have to make a decision on the trust and size of their personnel, but with a bit of planning and ensuring that policies are in place, BYOD can be beneficial to all.

Have You Tried Turning It Off And On?

It's become such a constant refrain in IT support that it's become a bit of a joke...

Have you tried restarting your machine?

So why is this often the first recourse for an IT help-desk type? Simply because, 7 out of 10 times*, it works.

At the very least, restart the program that you are having problems with and preferably restart your machine. Why? Imagine your computer as a worker in an office. You give it a job to do and it quite happily gets on with it. Then you give it another job. No problem. And you carry on piling jobs onto it which, for today's workhorses, is no big deal. However, there comes a point where one piece of paper gets lost. It's here somewhere but there are twenty piles of paper scattered all over the desk. Everything grinds to a halt while this one piece of paper is searched for. There is a quicker way of doing this. Clear the desk of all paper and start the jobs again, one at a time. The paper will turn up, or be recreated.

Now it's not a watertight illustration, but it gives you an idea of what the issue is. I hate to break it to you but computers are dumb creatures. So if one part of a process goes walkabout, the entire system could grind to a halt while the software tries to untangle itself. In the long term, it's often easier to clear the decks, as it were, and start again. Restarting will close every program and file, shut down the operating system and basically allow it to find itself, in a non-profound sense.

Save what you can. Know what you've done and what will need doing again. Make a coffee. Black, no sugar. Thanks.

*79% of statistics are made up on the spot

4K - The next step

Technology has a habit of moving forward just as we think we've caught up. High costs normally make us think "I could never afford that" but over time the costs become reachable as technology takes the next step in becoming something even more unreachable.

Just as we thought High Definition Television had settled down, with the advancements like 720 & 1080, the industry announces another format which is being used, and something that we "must have"

"Must have" is probably a little strong at this stage, currently the costs of televisions displaying this are between 'cost the earth' and 'out of this world' but we are sure that over the course of time, we'll be able to pick them up in our local market stall '10 for a fiver'.

4K is the buzzword at the moment. What is it?  Simply put, it's a high resolution.  Apparently the images are so good, that you could use a camcorder set at 4K and record moving images, with every frame rate at such a high quality, you could use them as stills.  Ideal for catching that perfect shot.

1080HD Tv's are currently at 1920 x 1080. 4K is set at a whopping 3840 x 2160.  It's tempting to think "that's only twice the size" but in reality you get 4 pixels for every 1 when compared with a 1080HD TV. 

What does this mean?  Better quality of course. More realistic images, less "jagged edges" of course.  What it also means is that the media that carries that information will have to change too.  It's more pixels for every frame, therefore the storage will be greater.

Currently storage would be subject to being compressed.  A trailer for "The Amazing Spiderman" was a massive 500Gb. JUST the trailer! A standard Blu-Ray disk holds around 50GB so something will need to be done to transport this type of film.  It's even doubtful whether you could stream this over current broadband speeds.

Oh, and if you're still connected to the Internet by a modem, it would have taken you over 2 years (888 days) to download that trailer!

Are you protected?

It's a gut wrenching thing to lose something, especially something of value.

It's worse when it's stolen.  To think that somebody has been in your house and gone through your things is a violation of sorts. If only there was something you could do..

Well.. there is.

First of all, make sure you are protected. Get an alarm on your house and use it. Get good locks on your doors and use them.  Get timed switches that will turn lights on and off while you are out and use them.  Make your house harder to get into than your neighbours.

Next, register everything that's worth money. Take pictures of it, inform your insurance of any high value items and their serial numbers, mark them with ultraviolet pens in discreet areas to identify them if they get taken.

Got a mobile device? Make note of it's IMEI number (International MobileStation Equipment Identity). To do this, dial *#06# (some devices require you to hit the Green dial button after) and write this number down.  In the event of theft, tell your mobile device provider this number and they can prevent it being used. For more information, view a You Tube video from the Metropolitan Police here

Register your credit cards with an agency that can stop your cards quickly. Most banks will offer a service to cancel them all, so ask when you apply.

As gut wrenching as it can be, you can do a lot to protect yourself. Get protected now.

Stop, Look & Listen

I've had the privilege of running training classes at my place of work over the past couple of weeks, and I must admit, it's been a real joy to do.

To see somebody's face as they learn something new, gives you a warm glow.  To hear them talk about it as they walk out the door "I'm going to try that out when I get back to the office" brings a smile and a slight sense of relief. To get reports from Managers saying that everybody has enjoyed the classes, makes the whole thing worth while.

Interestingly the only two problems we had were from two people who didn't apply what I would like to call "The Green Cross Code Rule". Do you remember that advert, from years ago?

The Green Cross Code was introduced as a safety measure for children to learn when they were going to cross the road. The expression used was "Stop, Look and Listen".

It's interesting that if people who were in the training classes would "Stop" what they were doing (being distracted by idol chat) "Look" at what was being demonstrated on screen (instead of thinking they knew a better way) and "Listen" to the advice being given (instead of keeping asking me to repeat the instruction or doing something different because they were not listening in the first place) I am sure those two issues wouldn't have happened.

Now this sounds like a rant, It's not. I genuinely enjoyed running the class, and can't wait for the next one. But the classes have been put together for a reason, the reason is to learn and to impart some new information to those that need help.

I take my hats off to those teachers that do this every day, but I envy them too. For they must enjoy that moment when inspiration hits, the penny drops and the pupil has that joy in their eyes.

It will serve as a reminder to Stop, Look and Listen to what they have to say to me.

First it was TV, then Radio

That probably sounds like a contradiction in the title, for surely it was radio then TV?

Well, yes, from an invention point of view, it was. But from a digital switchover point of view, in the UK, we are well aware of the changes that were made recently along with the final switching off of analogue transmitters.

But what about radio? Is this set for the same destination?

It seems so! Already the body behind DAB can foresee momentum in the digital switch over meaning that if you don't already have a DAB digital radio in the car, then it could be worth thinking about investing!

You may be considering buying a new car in the near future. Now would be a good time to consider a vehicle with a DAB digital radio as standard, or optional extra.

What does DAB radio offer over analogue?  Well, like Freeview for TV, DAB is able to offer an increased choice of radio stations as more stations can be sent down the same frequencies and simply decoded by the unit in your home or car.

Additional data can be sent along with the signal, meaning that we can often see information about the music or show that we are listening to.

For more information about the digital switch over for Digital Radio, please follow this link:  http://www.getdigitalradio.com/dab-news/view/385

Kudos to you, Sir!

To be a typical geek, it's rare to hear one talking about "How it used to be" with any sort of affection. By default, we're all about "here, now & what the future holds" as opposed to "those were the days". I'd like to, however, draw your attention to something pretty amazing by any standard.

Around 1982, computers didn't have as much memory as they do now.  You might have a machine with 4GB of memory. Computers in the early 80's only had about 16, 32 or 48k (4GB = 4,194,304k) so to write any program normally included a very organised brain and a shoe horn or crow bar to get it all in.

A game was launched, called "Elite", it fitted in 22k of memory. This is less than your typical email (average emails are around 60-80k).  However, within this one program contained the following..

• 8 Galaxies
• 256 Star Systems per Galaxy
• Legal System for every planet in the star system
• Economy and Trade information per planet

Clearly this was something special. People that could program a game in such an efficient manner, they could squash all of that information in.

Today, the same company are trying to write a new version of this game using the same method of programming. And THIS is something I've always championed.

Too often we find software is much too large for it's purpose. Why should we find our anti virus program commanding more system time than the programs it should be protecting? Why should email programs take such a long time to start, run and close? Why should our Operating Systems take MINUTES to load?

I hope other software development companies take a leaf out of the books of these innovative programmers. People that want to return computers back to the fast machines that they are, not sludge their way through a program that makes us desire to spend more money to buy bigger and better, when quite frankly it should be good enough.

Kudos to you!