I work for an ICT provider. we sell hardware, software, computers, services, etc, etc. One of the things my role in the company requires is cold calling. Old school, I know, but I just can't wait for the company or department to say "oh, I need some kit / software / help, lets phone that nice man waiting patiently by the phone". It never happens, no matter how long you wait. They won't call.

Now that there is a mob out there who are scamming small businesses, home users etc, with their telemarketing teams telling the client about "problems" they have on the computer, my job is just that little bit harder. Government departments seem to be full of people who have had these calls. Small and medium businesses sound tired of these calls, and I get lumped in to the same basket if I so much as mention computers, support or service.  Bit hard when that is what I am promoting.

One customer wanted to know where I was based. "Canberra", I said. Sure. yeah. he doesn't believe me. He thinks I am ...

Our workplace has deployed Blackberry phones to around 40% of its workforce. This is a pretty high figure for NSW Government agencies, I believe - if nothing else, a reasonable proportion of staff need to stay connected all the time. While my own IT team have moved on to Android devices, Blackberry continues to make a lot of sense for the general business, but power users like IT tend to get more benefit out of more fully featured smartphones.

Our Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) 5.02 deployment developed a fault where my team were unable to login to the Blackberry Administration Service (BAS) at all. Equally, the Blackberry Web Desktop Manager wouldn't work with AD logins. I'll plead some culpability in terms of configuring only AD logins to the server - you really should always have a BAS account defined for just such a reason.

That said, it was a problem which needed a solution, and having resolved it, it seemed like a good opportunity to share. 

Our BES is installed on a ...

It seems as though the Microsoft acquisition of Skype was rather sudden, and took many by surprise overnight. I was certainly surprised by it when the rumours started floating around Twitter yesterday. But unlike many I've seen who are concerned or apprehensive about what it will mean, I think it's a fantastic move that makes so much sense.

At my workplace, we have implemented a full Office Communications Server 2007 R2-based phone system, leveraging Snom handsets (and our Snomtastic application) to fully replace an aging NEC PABX and deliver much needed functionality, through desktop and mailbox integration, enhanced calling capabilities, conferencing, and massively improved redundancy. We have a phone system which, for the first time, makes sense and which we can fully control. We plan to move to Lync and Exchange 2010 soon, which will only improve our capabilities further.

In hearing of a Skype acquisition, my mind immediately jumped to the benefits for Lync - particularly i ...

I hit an interesting issue with our System Center Configuration Manager 2007 install which I thought I'd share, since it could be of use to others.

We have a configuration that calls for a primary (or central) ConfigMgr site, with a second primary as a child site. The central site also has a number of secondary sites, and the bulk of clients fall under this central server. The central site stores quite a bit of data, with its database around the 80Gb mark. Our child site, though, was growing out of control; I found the database had grown to 170Gb and climbing, with very little free space to reclaim. There was obviously something seriously wrong. We were actually running out of space on the drive storing it, forcing me to add a 2nd data file on a separate drive while I figured it out.

Worth noting that capability of SQL, since it can certainly get you out of trouble. There's plenty of purposes to adding a 2nd data file, but one of the best is its ability to get you out of a jam, space-wise. ...