Terinea Weblog – IT Support Blog

Google Operating System – Chrome

Support — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:28:18 +0000

I remember last year when Google Chrome was launched thinking it was only a matter of time before they followed suit with an operating system. Here are number of my favourite blogs on the subject.

It’s been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Five Reasons Google Chrome OS Will Fail

Eleven Questions About Google’s Chrome OS

Chrome – living in a Google world?

5 Ways Microsoft Will Bring the Hurt to Google Chrome OS

10 Things We’re Dying to Know About Chrome OS

3 reasons you’ll hate Chrome OS

Open Source Help Desks

Support — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:47:21 +0000

Last month we decided that we needed something a bit stronger than Basecamp for logging IT support requests. So it was time again to look at open source helpdesk solutions. Here is a brief summary of our research.

Our requirements are:-

Easy and fast to log support calls
Web based
Customer and contract driven
Knowledge Base
Service Level Agreements – Reports
Friendly and professional looking
PHP / Perl based
Isn’t a dead project

Asset Tracker – Old, not easy on the eye
Astres – Written in French and designed for Civil aviation
BATTS – Couldn’t see any screen shots or documentation, felt too technie
BugTracker.NET – Needs Windows Server ASP.NET
Bugzilla – Designed more for software development than IT support
DITrack – Command line driven
Double Choco Latte – Maybe a dead project? Doesn’t look too appealing.
Eventum – Software development rather than IT support
Helpdesk Reloaded – Looks dated
Helpdesk Issue Management – No Knowledge base or statistic
Information Resource Manager – I looked at this one a couple of years ago but appears the project is now dead

This list was made up from

http://www.opensourcehelpdesklist.com/

In the end we decided to give Sitracker a bash. Hopefully post an update in the future on how we’ve got on with it.

Two years of Edinburgh Coffee Morning – Quiz

Support — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:33:29 +0000

To celebrate two years of Edinburgh Coffee Morning the founder, Mike Coulter organised a quiz. There was a great response to the special ECM with over 35 people turning up.

There was seven teams in total and ours was the wining team (Nev, Fraser and Jim) !

Big thank you to Ewan for organising the gift for Mike for all his efforts over the past two years, thank you to Juliet for the gifts along with Mike and Centotre for hosting the event and providing a large bottle of Processco for the winning team, don’t worry team I haven’t drunk it!

http://flickr.com/photos/digitalagency/sets/72157612639540232/

My Favourite Mac Software – Part I

Support — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:54:23 +0000

Working at Terinea I use a mixture of different computers and software. Windows XP/Vista/Server, I use everyday at work for user and server support. Linux is the main work horse behind most of our clients systems and software, but my main computer is my Apple MacBook Pro.

Since making the switch to Mac in April last year I couldn’t see myself ever going back to Windows. As I’ve not blog much about Mac’s since getting one or should I say not blogging very much at all in 2008 I thought I would share some of my favourite Mac software that I have discovered over the last 9 months, some even run on Windows!

Chicken of the vnc – VNC viewers aren’t the best on the Mac compared to Windows but this one appears to be the best one.
Deeper – Additional System Preferences (Control Panel) Settings
FileZilla 3 – FTP Client for Linux, Windows and Mac.
Quicksilver – Hard to explain, replacement for the docking bar and spotlight to quickly launch programs.
Transmission – P2P/torrent download for downloading Linux Distro’s of course!
TextWrangler – I don’t like the built in text editor on the Mac
Remote Desktop Connection – RDP client from Microsoft
KeePassX – Password Database
OpenOffice 3 – Microsoft Office replacement. I’ve tried the others from Apple and Microsoft, and I feel this is the best for the Mac, although I still think Office 2007 for Windows is the best office application.
FreeNode – Mind Mapping Software (Freemind for Windows)
Fluid – For making web applications into dockable icons, for example I have one for Basecamp.
Virtualbox – Open Source Virtual Machine from Sun MicroSystems for Windows and Linux
Zenmap – Network Port scanner for Apple (Nmap for Windows)
Default FolderX – Helps to make saving files to suitable directory a quick process.
Adium – Instant Messenger application that supports a wide range of protocols (MSN, Jabber, Gtalk)

A good resource for additional Mac software is
http://osx.iusethis.com

What’s your favourite Mac software?

Dan Moon

Support — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:36:01 +0000

Back in June, young Mr Paul (sat at his computer) joined the Edinburgh team and apart from his love of S Club Juniors has been a valuable addition to the team. Last month we decided to build upon this and have taken on Dan. Dan is sat behind Paul with Mark in the background from the southern office. Mark came up the other week from the Hastings office to check up on us all. Additional my brother came up from England to do some more work experience!

Mark enjoying work with my Windows Vista machine!

Dan nearly didn’t get the job after he though I might be a Manchester Utd supporter. I decided not to hold this against him, after I found out the poor sod is a Spurs supporter. Thanks for Keane!

So why Dan Moon? Well Dan plays the drums but not any type of drums, Japanese’s ones!

I hope Dan will enjoy working for Terinea and we can eventually wean him off Bon Jovi!

Jamie

Check out what we’ve been listening too at…

http://www.last.fm/user/terinea

Sum up your business using Delicious and Wordle

Support — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:44:43 +0000

Been using Delicious social bookmarking within the business for well over a year now. Not sure if anyone else in the business uses the account but I always find it useful. Anyway a couple of months of ago I came across Wordle, which takes your bookmarks and creates a fancy pictures like the one above. You can choose from over 10 different types of fonts, lots of colours and orientation of the words. It can also take plain text if you don’t have Delicious account. Being super busy at work I forgot to blog about it.

Warning you may waste some time on this!

http://wordle.net/

Newbie

Support — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:55:43 +0000

Terinea is pleased to announcement the appointment of Paul as software developer in the Edinburgh office. Paul will be mainly working on our ERP System (Enterprise Relationship Planning) which works in conjunction with our touch screen system, Jserve.

We hope that Paul enjoys his time at Terinea and that my choice of music in the office doesn’t upset him.

Jamie

Firefox 3

Support — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:00:47 +0000

If you’ve not already installed Firefox 3 or even worst still, not even installed Firefox before (Web Browser) then today is the day to do so.

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/

Halfway inbetween Mobile and Laptop : Netbooks

Support — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:41:42 +0000

When you mention portable computing you might think Laptop or smart phone (iPhone, Blackberry). Last year Asus released a very small laptop for £200, kick starting this new breed of portable devices that are typically being referred as NetBooks.

This is nothing new, Microsoft tried to kick this start this market before with UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) but like with its attempted at the PC tablet, it failed because of the pricing. Microsoft has tried to make these devices maintain the same power specifications of larger portable devices, which then made them the same price as laptops or more. The model above is running Windows Vista, which is a bit silly when we think lower end laptops themselves struggle to run the resource hungry OS.

Asus had the right idea last year when it started selling the Eee PC, cut back the specifications and price it in between the cost of a Smart Mobile and standard Laptop.

Now Dell has release details of its range of netbooks.

Dell E and E Slim revealed, taking on Eee and Air in one fell swoop

Surely it will only be a matter of time before Apple brings out a similar product to fit this emerging market. For long as Apple remember the golden rule here, make it cheaper than a standard laptop but provide more features than a smart phone.

Tech Weekly in Edinburgh – Guardian Podcast

Support — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:41:49 +0000

Last month I had double helping of my weekly coffee morning, when the Guardian held their weekly Tech Podcast in Edinburgh, Home House on Picardy Place. The Guardian was looking to find out more about Technology and Scotland, in particular the gaming industry.

Only managed an hour, but it was interesting to see the wide range of technology companies operating in Edinburgh and Scotland.

You can listen to the podcast here and find out more about Jemima Kiss (Blog) and Aleks Krotoski (Blog) from the Guardian.

My flickr set here and Mike’s from Digital Agency here.