Important tools needed on Android for IT Pro's

Ok a slight deviation but you have got that shiny android device and are wondering what to load on there.

Well first things first... Get an antivirus.

1. AVG
The great guys at AVG have created an AV for android devices that works quite well.


 So visit the marketplace and install that one.

2. Terminal Emulator
To get underneath the hood of android. Get this to tweak and see what goes on. But also for simple commands that you like doing in Linux.

3. Flash Light
How many times have you had to crawl behind servers and cabling to find that elusive serial number or port only to realise that you need a torch/flash light and haven't got one. Turn your phone camera's flash into a torch. But be warned it drinks some serious battery juice.

4. Router Passwords
An application to get those default passwords for the various routers. Ok might be a little out of date. But is a absolute life saver when you need to kill the config and start things without the manual.

5. Metaloid
Ok there are a few more applications like this that use a magnetometer. But Metaloid seems to be one of the better ones. Very useful for when things dont work the way they should do?
Ever find there is a magnetic field anomaly that is stopping your servers and networking equipment from working properly.

6. File Manager
To use an windows explorer style application to look at the file structure on your android device

7. IP Calculator
Hate subnetting? Join the club. Use this little app to help you get around things.

8. iMediaShare
Ok not quite a techie tool, but still useful. This is a fully featured DLNA server. Great for carrying your movies, photos and music around and making it appear on your internet enabled TV, PS3, XBOX etc. The life of a techie can be solitary with fans and servers being your only friends.

9. Silentflip
Turning your phone onto silent mode can be a real challenge on android devices. So use this little widget to turn it to silent mode.

10. Bubble
A useful tool to check the level of various items. Usually useful when rack mounting when the cages are of the old variety and need to be checked that the device is going in correctly and is lined up.

There are more applications like a SAMBA client (CIFS for some of us. File Sharing for most.) RDP Clients and ssh clients and servers that make for interesting uses.

IT Service Management in the global economy

The words service management tends to bring mixed feelings in organisations depending on the experience felt within the organisation.

A lot of the time you find people tend to follow one doctrine or the other and lose sight of the fact of delivering not only a good service but a fantastic experience.

It is a bit like you going to a restaurant and getting great food where the service is speedy and flexible enough to meet changes when they occur.

This sometimes tends to elude the IT service industry. You either get people following ITIL to the letter or someother process like the manufacturing based 6sigma.

In the process the user gets left behind or the quality suffers.

Translation: great service, bad food or bad service, great food.

The industry has a whole needs to look at what it delivers. For it to do this all it has to do is look at the medical profession and the food service industry to work out how best to help it achieve the goal of great service and great experience.

android experience

Hello

Well in my last post I mentioned the challenge Nokia had when it chose windows. Then I saw what android had in the pipeline and realised this battle was over before it began.

Whatever windows wants to do android does it already. If anything it runs faster. Nokia made a lot of mistakes by not creating a new OS when it had the advantage.

I remember the n95 having DLNA support and magically they gave up. Same with the dvb receiver in the n96.

So this could well be the end except if Nokia can pull something out of the bag within the year.

I want to like you Nokia but you just ain't got it.

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Microsoft & Nokia Match made in heaven?

Well guess I spoke too soon. Now Microsoft can really learn some things from Nokia but I am beginning to wonder is this all worth it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12554499

Maybe this wedding is heading for a annulment on the grounds of incompetence!!!

Nokia why not let the users decide which OS they want to install on the phone maybe this will be the winner USP!!!

Nokia and Microsoft a match made in heaven???

Hello all...

As you have all heard Microsoft and Nokia decided to take the plunge earlier this month in what looks like a shot gun wedding!!!

However this is now reached a position that the Bride (Nokia) has suddenly realised that maybe it wasn't such a good idea but can't admit it to its friends and foes alike without suffering a major cardiac arrest and maybe not surviving.

Whoa hold on a second this is starting to sound familiar!!! Anyone remember when Microsoft stepped in to save Apple in the 90's?

Look at how that relationship turned out....

Well it looks like Microsoft and Nokia are hoping for something similar whether they get it is a whole different matter altogether.

The problem for Nokia is while it makes great Hardware for its mobile devices it's software has been buggy as hell...

For Microsoft it has had a version of Windows Ce/Mobile/Phone in some form but really hasn't been able to break through.

So perhaps both companies see this as a strategy of combining their strengths to build a better platform!

I for one believe this may happen as long as the following happens....

Windows Phone 7 delivers all the things Symbian Offers as well as what Android and Apple do in terms of features.

Secondly there has to be a easy way for the developer to create any application their mind thinks of with great ease. In this Microsoft may have an advantage in that everyone is familiar with Windows.

I know a lot of the Linux and Mac crowd will say things are easy but have you tried developing an application for windows and developing an application for Linux.

If Microsoft figure out which I hope they do that if they create tools for the novice developer out there they may just capture the app market if they provide easy to use tools and create a loose barrier for developing applications and releasing.

Yes there will be viruses and miscreants out there but this is what helped make windows popular. The ability to create and distribute freely.

So for this marriage to work the offspring must be easy and free for everyone to use otherwise it may just go the way of other device makers such as siemens, sagem etc who withdrew from the phone market as they couldn't compete!

Who needs help with the Haddock! #3

Ok another post about the AD2LDAP tool. I had a few complaints that things were not working properly especially with the command line tool.

Well I have had the chance to see what was wrong and have now rectified it.

So feel free download the list of tools from here.

Both the GUI and Command Line Versions have been included. You must get the .NET Framework V4 download to for these tools to work as well as running it on a machine that is attached to a domain.

Links Below:
.NET Framework V4 Download
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=en

AD2LDAP Tools
https://sites.google.com/site/roarukblog/AD2LDAP.zip

Enjoy People.

Who needs help with the Haddock! #2

Last March I wrote about a tool you would find handy for getting the full LDAP string.
Well here is a compiled version for your use! Hope this helps you in the administration of your site.

https://sites.google.com/site/roarukblog/AD2LDAP.zip

How do I find out everything about a computer....

See I told you all I hadn't disappeared. Well here I am back for 2011. Hopefully I will be posting more often than in the last few years...Well that is the wish.

So coming back to things have you ever been in a position where you have wanted to find a serial number of the machine where it can't be reached or is no longer there.

Or how about the elusive serial number for a monitor that just happens to be buried under desk graffiti?

Or maybe you need to audit the machines to find out what you have got.

Well let me introduce you to a tool called WinAudit made by a company called Parmavex Services based up in Oldbury in the Midlands of England.

A superb tool that gets you not just a single serial number for a system with multiple monitors like you would get with a VBScript but the entire list of serial numbers for multiple screens.

This and its ability to be run remotely using tools such as psexec mean that it can make the system administrator's job easy!

Give it a try and see what you think.
http://www.pxserver.com/WinAudit.htm

I haven't disappeared....

No really I haven't! So watch this space! More to follow...

Just wait and watch this space.