James Bell

Storage Options Scroll Extreme Tablet

James — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:42:52 +0000

The Scroll Extreme is a 9.7″ tablet PC running the Android 4.0 mobile operating system aka Ice Cream Sandwich. Having recently had chance to use one, I thought I’d share my views. Android 4.0 The Scroll Extreme features the Android 4.0 operating system. The experience and user interface is much more refined than older versions of Android. I have …

BTCC 2012 Season Start – Brands Hatch

James — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:37:53 +0000

Last weekend saw the start of the 2012 BTCC season at Brands Hatch. The action quickly got under way despite many cars been relatively untested. The biggest surprise of all coming from the new MG – the performance and reliability of which allowed Jason Plato to win race 3. Jason Plato leads the championship following the weekend’s racing. Catch up on the action …

Dell EqualLogic PS4100X

James — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:41:48 +0000

I have just completed an initialisation of a Dell EqualLogic PS4100X Storage Area Network (SAN). The PS4100X in question features dual controllers and capacity for 24 2.5″ SAS drives. The EqualLogic is currently populated with 300GB 10K drives achieving a raw data capacity of 7.2TB. I chose to initialise the SAN using the CLI available from the primary controller’s …

VMware vSphere 5: Install, Configure and Manage

James — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:20:26 +0000

Having worked with VMware products for a number of years and looking to hone my skills, I recently completed the VMware vSphere 5: Install, Configure and Manage training course. The knowledge gained as part of this course combined with my prior VMware experience has given me an advanced level of knowledge in the product. Particular areas of interest and expertise, within …

BTCC 2012 is Coming!!!

James — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:17:46 +0000

Lots of BTCC news is being released ahead of the 2012 season. This season looks to be even better than the last. A few highlights include the entrance of MG, the 2012 NGTC Honda Civic prepared by Team Dynamics and Thorney Motorsport’s two Vauxhall Insignia NGTC. Both sets of cars are NGTC specification featuring the …

My Experience Upgrading VMware vCenter to Version 5

James — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:18:07 +0000

Earlier this week I decided to start our upgrade of vSphere 4.1 to version 5. There a numerous steps involved with this process: Backup existing installation. Upgrade vCenter. Upgrade ESXi hosts. Update VMTools and virtual hardware. Today I thought I would share my experiences with the vCenter upgrade. I really cannot stress enough the importance of a proper backup of …

LibreOffice 3.5 is Launched!

James — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:39:32 +0000

The Document Foundation has launched LibreOffice 3.5! It has been hailed “The Best Free Office Suite Ever” and I, for one, completely agree. More information about this release: http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2012/02/14/the-document-foundation-announces-libreoffice-3-5-the-best-free-office-suite-ever/ To download: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

Cisco WAP4410N Wireless N Access Point Review

James — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:03:45 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I was tasked with solving a connectivity problem between two buildings that had unfortunately lost their fibre optic connection. Due to the limited time scale to come up with a solution an initial wireless 802.11g bridge was created using a pair of Netgear WG302 APs that I managed to find …

Presenting the rear wheel drive Ford Transit

James — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:25:18 +0000

LibreOffice 3.5 RC

James — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 09:02:56 +0000

LibreOffice 3.5 RC3 has been released, check it out at: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/pre-releases/. Includes some cool new features and a host of improvements. Watch out Microsoft, you may be popular now….