2012 | CallamMcMillan.com

BT Infinity on Cisco Router: Read This First!

Callam McMillan 18/09/2012 39 Comments

BT Infinity – BT’s implementation of Fibre-To-The-Cabinet (FTTC) is great, especially when you compare it to standard broadband. Sadly the same cannot be said for their provided router (the HomeHub) which is useless, and happens to use your bandwidth to provide a publicly accessible hotspot for any pleb to come along and use. This guide will talk you through setting up a Cisco router to take the place of the HomeHub and teach you how to avoid some of the pitfalls that may otherwise blight your installation. First of all, you need to understand the hardware you have and what…
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Networking

What the latest Java exploits teach us about security

Callam McMillan 03/09/2012 0 Comments

I contributed earlier to a disucssion on an article in The Register (Link) on dealing with malware caused as a result of security vulnerabilities in Java. The article discusses how to go about cleaning up the various pieces of Malware downloaded and requires the use of multiple security tools covered in 12 steps. As I and others suggested at this point, given an infection of this magnitude, going for a clean-up should be the last resort. Virus removals are my least favourite computer repair job since it can be virtually impossible to totally rid a system of a virus, and…
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Security

Incorporating Cisco Equipment into Visio Drawings

Callam McMillan 10/08/2012 1 Comment

Want to put Cisco network icons into your Visio document or Powerpoint? Want to model Cisco equipment in Visio but can’t be bothered to draw it out? Well don’t worry because Cisco has done it for you! They provide a range of icons for use in the Microsoft Office suite and some of them should also work in more rubbish office suites. You can find the symbols here and the Visio components here

Networking

Wednesday’s XKCD

Callam McMillan 08/08/2012

Since we’re all going Olympics crazy, I thought I’d share todays XKCD comic strip… See more XKCD by clicking here

Random

HowTo: Comment out lines in a .htaccess file

Callam McMillan 31/07/2012

The .htaccess file allows for directory-level configuration on Unix based web servers. You may use the .htaccess file on a website for authorisation and authentication, or for URL rewriting (changing mywebsite.com/fruit/bananas to mywebsite.com/fruit.php?fruit=bananas.) This feature allows the mechanics of your website to be hidden from the user and allows search engines to index your content more efficiently. As with most configuration files, it becomes necessary to comment out lines and add comments to assist with maintaining the file. To do this you need to add a hash (#) symbol at the start of each line. Simples!

IT

I hate Lexmark… About as much as this cat!

Callam McMillan 24/07/2012

I have never had a good relationship with Lexmark printers since the 3000 series from the late 90’s. Sadly they seem to have remembered this and are now determined to frustrate me on a daily basis. Today I needed to print a label onto a C5 envelope, so I tell it to pick the envelope up from the manual paper feeder, I position the envelope and hit the print button for it to say “Insert media in paper loader” !!!!!!!! There’s a bloody envelope here, pick the bloody thing up and print on it! No wait, “Error: Guide rails not…
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Personal, Random

A gadget for the bloody minded…

Callam McMillan 13/07/2012 0 Comments

Do you find yourself arguing with electronics? Are you bloody minded and refuse to give up? Well perhaps this isn’t the gadget for you! Introducing the Useless Box from ThinkGeek. There’s not much else I can say, so watch the video and then tell me if you can think of anything less useful. My submission is any Apple device.

Random

How I spend my weekends…

Callam McMillan 09/07/2012 2 Comments

Anybody that visits this site on a regular basis will notice that I have not been posting much lately. The reason for this, aside from my laziness is that I have been working on another project with my partner-in-crime – Mitul Patel. This time we have been doing some more work on his parents mini-supermarket. This time there I have taken a series of photos to show the saga. This photo was taken in July 2010, almost two years ago to the day. At this point I had only known Mitul for a couple of months and he asked me…
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Networking, Personal

CallamMcMillan.com has a twitter feed!

Callam McMillan 23/05/2012 0 Comments

One of the perennial problems of keeping this website up to date with content is finding the time to write it. Also, an entire article to a single thought or observation seems wasteful of our time. So, despite my reservations about the value and usefulness of Twitter, CallamMcMillan.com now has its own Twitter feed – @CallamMcMillan. You can follow us, check it out at http://twitter.com/CallamMcMillan, or add that address to your favourite RSS reader to keep up to date. Also, please note that the reader widget on the homepage can be a little flaky in some versions of IE.

Uncategorised

Begging for Management

Mitul Patel 17/05/2012 1 Comment

Picture this, you’ve completed 3 years of university delivering a dissertation, a team project and some compulsory management modules, by now you and everyone in your team should surely know how to manage effectively right? Nope. I’ve just completed a team project so badly managed that I actually dreamt about having a new manager coming in and saving us all, here’s how it happened. Week 1 (October 2011) So the 10 students comprising of 7 from Computer Science and 3 from Computing and Management are presented with 2 projects, a BAE systems project which is short and nasty and a…
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Management

Yearly Archive: 2012