Sphinx impersonator!

Eyeballs at risk of cooking though...

An afternoon of fixes, and I'm in a good mood for the #6Nations tomorrow!

This afternoon, after some interesting supplier negotiations on behalf of a client I had some “free time”. So I looked at the “problems I really ought to look at” list.


Item 1
Patching my first and oldest server. This machine is an elderly, but perfectly serviceable dual processor box running Windows 2003. Having successfully sorted out the horrendous .NET Framework updates last year it was still objecting to a few minor Windows patches applying properly. For once, the simple step of applying a few at a time fixed it all. I’m not going to try to work out why, just take satisfaction that the box is doing what it should for once!

Item 2
I needed to replace a laptop just before a trip to the US last year, and had some fun and games whilst out there. Ever since the laptop would not let me logon with my own id. It always happened when time was at a premium so I could not be bothered. So looked around a bit more and found by accident (whilst rebooted the old server that still hosted a roaming profile), that the machine would boot when the roaming profile was missing. This led to Error message when you log on to a Windows Vista-based or Windows 7-based computer by using a temporary profile: "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded"  which identified bad profile data in the registry. Now this made some sense, I think I may have wiped the local copy of the profile in the US, and not done anything more about it later. A swift deletion of the keys, a reboot, and voila! I’m in.

Now for dinner, some R&R and the Six Nations tomorrow. Come on England!

PS. For the record, the original google search term was: windows 7 64bit logon pauses cannot create profile

@eileenb 1957 Telegraph marmalade recipe just add vodka :-)

Second time around with a complete picture!

More @virginmedia incompetence, they just don't get it #fail

Today I received a letter from Virgin Media requesting that I contact them about my account as there was no longer a valid DD in place through which they could collect funds.

There is no surprise to me in this as I left Virgin (once having been an NTLWorld customer, and now finally tired of their poor customer service) and as a precaution cancelled the DD at the bank.

I spoke to Megan and explained. She said I had to pay, I explained I was unwilling to pay when it included advance payment for a service I no longer used. That would be OK, she explained, as Virgin would take the money and then refund me with a cheque. Yeah, right I thought. I explained that on several occasions I had requested a final invoice from them and once I received that I would pay up. Apparently the final invoice *could* be emailed me to me, so she did. However when I asked if it covered the termination period and therefore did not overcharge me, it got less clear. It seems that having now requested a nett invoice, Virgin would be unable to email me the correct information, I would have to wait whilst she spoke to the cancellation team. Will this take long? I asked, just a couple of minutes I was told. Ok, said I, I'll hang on whilst you do that, but for 2 minutes.

Four minutes later I hung up.

Virgin, you have to do better. I have left you. I want a final invoice that covers the few days the service was in place before I moved to a better ISP (a capability already demonstrated), and the phone charges from the previous month. I am not willing to overpay you and wait for a refund cheque; you can work it out, you have the information; and I hazard a guess you have a few computers on which you can do the sums. Do them and let me know.

These are *my* terms of business.