Scuza unui cetatean!

Imi pare rau dar azi nu am putut sa-mi exercit dreptul la vot! Ca si cum as mai avea incredere ca unul din candidati ar putea schimba ceva in Romania. Lumea pare sa treaca usor peste faptul ca este vorba de alegeri pentru Cotroceni si nu "corhoada (600 la numar mai exact)" administrativ-legislativa a tarii.

Printre candidati cred ca numai doamna Macovei are putea aduce o schimbare. Privind dincolo de campania nici de cum electorala, ci mai mult marketing al PNL, ascunzandu-se in spatele modelului german mult idolatizat din Romania si lipsa de campanie electorala a PSD-ului. Lumea pare sa fie oarba la faptul ca domnul Ponta desi turul intai e terminat inca nu si-a prezentat programul si viziunea pentru mandatul de presedinte! Poate nici el nu crede ca va fi ales....

Revenind acum la ce se intampla in diaspora. Azitazi am incercat in doua randuri sa imi exercit dreptul. Imposibil! Coada de 200 de metrii si frigul de afara m-au convins alfel. Stiu, multi spune-ti: Ha, esti slab! Nu, sunt lucid si nu am sa imi petrec duminica la coada! Problema este: cum pana lu' Badea mai exista tara asta?! Statul acesta care nu poate organiza un vot prin faptul ca nu stie cati suntem plecati peste hotare (unde sunt cele 11 servicii de informatii?) cum naiba administreaza o tara? Care este mult mai complexa pe 10.000 de alte nivele. 

Eu am scapat relativ usor. Am semnalizat de doua ori dreapta si am plecat acasa. Dar au fost multi altii care au venit zeci poate chiar sute de kilometrii pentru a vota. Pacat pentru ei. Rusine MAE si Biroului Electoral pentru lipsa de organizare!  

Cate voturi s-au pierdut si vor fi pierdute prin cei ca mine care s-au intors din drum si prin cei care nu vor mai participa la turul doi? Raspunsul e: Multe!

As dori sa inchei cu o dedicatie de sirena de ambulanta pentru toti cei care au fost implicati in organizarea votului pentru diaspora! 

PS: Romanii din Frata sunt alungati din ambasada cu ajutorul jandarmeriei franceze chemata chiar de amabasada...

Easy printing solution for IT Staff and Users

Making printer deployment easy:

When I have joined this business printing was not a solution but more of a problem causing a lot of support overheads. Customers were confused of how to find a printer and staff even more confused because of the many various implementations and printing solutions in place. 

In this tutorial I will try and show you how to clean up your environment a little and make users and support staff life easy. 

Part 1. No locally shared printers / How to publish them to a file-print server

There is more trouble than benefit in having printers set up this way.

• New IT staff does not know specifics of these
• Customers most of the time unaware printers are shared of their machine and power them off
• No way of centrally updating or managing the printer
• A lot more headaches which I will not list (including undesired network traffic)

How to publish printers properly: 

Most businesses will have a file print server. The perfect location to put your printers.

0. Go to the manufacturer website and download both x86 and x64 bit drivers for your printer specific model. (Bad idea to use generic drivers)

1. Log onto the server

2. Open Printer Management and select add printer:

3. Select TCP/IP or if the printer is attached locally to the server the port its attached to. 
4. Enter the IP address of the printer (you have to make all printers IP Static) 
5. Untick the option of automatically detect driver (most of the time in experience the driver attached is out of date and will cause issues)
6. Give the printer a meaningful name. Good example for "Finance in Dublin" : DUBFIN01 (Make sure printer name and share name are the same).
7. Finish the install and go back to the printer instance right clicking it and proprieties.
8. Sharing tab: Tick list in directory (this will allow users to add the printer from AD or new OS's will discover it automatically when trying to add a new network printer)
9. Sharing tab -> Additional Drivers: Ensure both x86 and x64 bit drivers are available. This is from where clients will pull drivers to install the printer. 
10. Advanced tab: Set printing default to the way you desire.
11. Device Settings tab: Here you can enforce various settings like "Only B&W printing". Good practice is to have two instances of each printer where one is color and one B&W. Only privileged users should have access to the color instance for cost saving. 

At this stage the printer is availble to share from the file print server. You can add it by Control Panel -> Printers -> Add a network printer -> \\YOUSERVERNAME\PRINTERNAME

However this is sometime difficult to explain to users and we have no record of who has what printer. 

2. Deploy printers using Active Directory Security Groups and Group Policy

1. First create one group for each printer in AD (Domain local or global). Do not create Universal groups as its unnecessary replication traffic.You will use membership of this group to automatically deploy the printer. 
2. Go back to Printer Management -> Right Click Printer -> Deploy with Group Policy ->
Click browse -> Select the root OU of users -> Click create new Group Policy Object and give it the name of your printer -> Highlight it and click ok which will bring you back to the original screen:

 3. Tick the box for "per user" GPO as shown and click Add. 
 4. Click Ok. 
 5. Now browse to your Group Policy Management Console and locate the policy created above and remove "Authenticated Users" from Security Filtering [first screen - easy to find] and add the AD group you have created previous. 

At this stage any user added to the printer group will have the printer mapped at first logon. Beware this is not working for Windows XP users. There is a little client which you need to install to make this work. We will look at XP Clients below. Simple script to map printers for them.

Bike aware!

Please open your eyes and most important don't be a selfish wheel spinner!

Today I have come across a very shocking video yet a common scenario on our roads. Every driver, be it bicycle, motorbike or truck should be aware of this video and the consequences a few seconds of selfishness can cause.

Before you start judging any of the sides be it biker or driver please consider the critical events leading to it. Also before judging the biker for obviously being over the limit consider if it was an ambulance breaking the limit. Would you still pull in front of it? The argument the driver couldn't see the biker is invalid. If so that means he was either distracted or not fit to drive a vehicle and should face the consequences.

Driving a motorbike and a car daily for several years have found myself in both drivers seats and believe to have the right to express my opinion. Correct me if I'm wrong!

Yes, the biker was obviously driving fast but that was no excuse for the selfish behavior of cutting his lane. Sometimes I drive along the M50 (highway around Dublin) and see drivers trying to enforce the rules of the road. Like hogging the third lane with their two tonne vehicle just because they think the car behind should drive slower. Dummy you don't know why he is trying ot overtake you! Maybe his spouse is sick at home or he has an important job interview to feed three little children at home. You just can't know it all!

Also let's admit we are all selfish to an extent. Seeing the bike quiz through traffic after you've been stuck for hours in it and you start pulling toward the white mark so he can't get past. Also a very common behavior is to pull in front of the oncoming motorbike knowing he will break to protect his integrity, etc. I've seen them all many times!

Don't use your car as a weapon! A good exercise: Before any maneuver think if you would do the same using a slower and less protected bicycle?

If your a biker try be more defensive in your driving. In the era of social media and distractions its hard to expect anyone to be 100% all the time. Maybe the driver is after a long twelve hour shift? Consider this!

VIDEO HERE!