Work – Page 5 – Neil Baldwin's blog : Warning contains walking, technology, photography, holidays.

How to tether you blackberry to your windows 7 machine

Stuck at Belfast City I thought I would have one last go at this. As you can tell by this post I was successful.
From this page here are the important bits.

1. Pair your blackberry to your windows machine, via bluetooth.

2. Set up an Internet APN.

Click Start > Settings > Control Panel
Double-click Phone and Modem Options
In the Phone and Modem Options window, click the Modems tab
Select Standard Modem and click Properties
Click Change Settings
In the Standard Modem Properties window, click the Advanced tab
In the Extra initialization commands field, type the following under CODE:

at+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”internet”

Click OK.
In the Phone and Modem Options window, click OK.

3. To configure dial-up networking, complete the procedure that is appropriate to the operating system you are using:

Click Start
Select Connect To
Click Setup a connection or network
Click Setup a dialup connection
In the Dial-up phone number field type *99#
Type the user name web and password web
In the Connection Name field type BlackBerry
Click Dialing Rules
Make sure the profile created in Task 2 has been selected, and then clickOK
Select Connect to establish an internet connection.

Work wildlife and duck update

The duck at work is still on the nest, I am getting a bit worried that it might be too long perhaps thee is going to be no hatching at all. According to a website I found it takes 28 days so actually that is imminent.
We also have another nest at work it turns out. We had a couple of days of the phones going out momentarily and also the data connection. After some investigation by BT it turns out there is a tree in the way of the microwave link. They said no problem we will lop a bit off the top and you will be fine until you can shop the tree down. I thought that is that problem solved. It turns out there is an active Woodpecker nest in the trunk of the tree, and the law states you cannot disturb a nesting bird. So BT are going to put in a temporary mast to tide us over until the birds fledge and we can chop the tree down.

Lost productivity

How many hours were lost today in offices around the world. The google home page had a pacman game to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of the video game. If you want to try it go to the google home page, but remember it is only for today.

Duck on eggs

We have a duck (Mallard) hiding in a flower bed at work and she sat on eggs, to day I took a peek and saw her turn the eggs and reposition them.

I first found out about a week ago early one morning when Basil, called me over and pointed to the edge of the flower bed. I thought he had spotted some rare plant or something, but we I looked through the foliage I could make out he brown/black pattern of a mallard. The mother is very trusting if you keep a few metres back and look into the bed she just opens one eye but does not raise her head which is usually tucked into here body as ducks do.

I am looking forward to the day when the the duckings emerge from the nest. I will keep you posted hopefully with some pictures.

Volcanic ash airplane tracker

If you want to see live airplane traffic check this out http://www.radarvirtuel.com

It shows the current position and status of planes over Europe. You can also add labels, see the current position of the volcanix ash cloud, and filter out any of the aircraft based on many parameters.

I regularly fly to Northern Ireland so I use it to check what it happening to those flight paths only, useful to see if the incoming plane is on time.

Roll call

Sat on plane waiting to take off from Belfast city, all was going well until the despatchers and the crew could not agree on numbers.
In the end we the ground crew had to go to each passenger in turn and mark us all off the list of passengers thay had. As I write this we are 15 minutes delayed.
In the end a gentleman was taken off the plane. It was not clear if he was on the wrong plane or not. The attendent would not tell me, but I got the impression that he was and the despatchers were embarassed that they had allowed him through.
One of the pilots of the plane is female, I don’t think I have ever noticed a female airline pilot.

W H Smith anti virus

Back to Luton airport for a trip to Belfast. Thought I would have breakfast at the airport, this time, as I noticed that Pret does porridge. Turns out to be good porridge, I guess because it has been on the heat for a while the oats really get a chance to expand, so the whole thing is much more creamy. I opted for a dollop of honey for £1.99, which means they are making big margins on materials. I get a kg of Tesco value oats for less than a pound, and all you need for a portion of porridge is half a mug full. A bag lasts me a couple of months.
On the way in I stopped off in W H Smiths to get a paper, and noticed that the advertising screen above the tills was showing and error message, as I like to collect public error messages I thought I would share it with you all. It is an AVG anti virus message complaining that the license had run out.
Anyway the plane is about to push off and so am I.

Fire at work

Fire alarm at 9:15 the factory was on fire. No less than 2 fire engines, a fire all terrain vechile, and a fire car turned up.
We all had to stand outside in the cold. According to a reliable source “They ran out of water and had to start pumping from the canal”, although some doubting Thomas thinks that they used a fire hydrant.
The news got as far as the Mix96 website by 15:38 (not as quick as it was on the blog!) and we got glowing reports. Everyone knew what to do the, and all our fire precautions are ship shape because we take that sort of thing seriously.

The canal is overflowing

On the way to and from work this morning it looked like the canal was going to over flow. Not sure if it was caused by the recent rain/snow or a lock open up stream. The water was flowing fast through a closed lock, it was only a bout 1 or 2 inches from over flowing, and generally the canal was clear rather than the usual murkiness.

Belfast City (George Best) Airport

Travelling again to Belfast, different this time though I am flying in and out of Belfast City (George Best) Airport rather Belfast international. City (as the locals call it) is right in the heart of the city of Belfast situated in I guess what would have been Harland and Wolf docks, I think they built the Titanic here. It is smaller than International with less gates. They give you plastic bags in security rather than charging a pound. I arrived early and took the opportunity for a bite to eat from Harvest Market. The fish pie and mushy peas is to be recommended. When I arrived in the departure lounge it was quite crowded but a couple of flights left and it emptied out.