Telecommuters Work Longer Hours than Office Goers

When someone says “telecommuting,” do you picture yourself easing into the workday in a pair of fuzzy slippers? Does your boss think the same?
The reality is, far from this. Because a new study shows that folks who work at home at least some of the time put in more hours than those who stay at the office.
Telecommuting for a portion of the work week certain has its appeal.

• Avoiding the time and cost involved in commuting
• Having a more flexible schedule
• A better work-life balance

Are all potential pluses. But are employees really able to take advantage of such work-at-home perks?
Researchers took advantage of labor information from census bureau surveys and were surprised by what they found. First off, the proportion of people who work remotely remained unchanged from the mid-’90s to the mid-2000s the most recent data available. Second, those who do telecommute are more likely to work overtime, an additional 5 to 7 hours on top of the standard 40.
This means that people who work from the comfort of home are not slackers in slippers.
They’re more likely tech-savvy self-starters—who don’t know when to stop.
That’s according to work published in the journal MonthlyLabor Review. [Mary C. Noonan and Jennifer L. Glass, The hard truth about telecommuting]

Correcting Unix Clock Drift on Hyper-V

I recently had a problem where my CentOS 5 virtual machine running on Hyper-V on Server 2008 R2 was gaining time quite dramatically.

Initially, I turned off "Time synchronization" in the Integration Services section of the Hyper-V settings for the CentOS virtual machine. This did help a bit, but it was still far to inaccurate and too much for NTP to correct.

After a bit of Googling, here is what I did to correct the clock inaccuracy problem:

Modify the kernel boot options by editing [/boot/grub/grub.conf] and adding the line "divider=10 clocksource=acpi_pm" (for 32-bit) or "notsc divider=10" (for 64-bit) after the appropriate kernel line, as below.

---

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda5
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.18-308.20.1.el5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-308.20.1.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ selinux=0 notsc divider=10
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-308.20.1.el5.img
title CentOS (2.6.18-274.17.1.el5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-274.17.1.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ selinux=0
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-274.17.1.el5.img

---

Now to configure NTP, you might need to install it first with yum install ntp

The following is the [/etc/ntp.conf]. Note that you should normally change 0.centos.pool.ntp.org to something specific to your country, for example, 0.uk.pool.ntp.org, and the same for the other ntp servers here, and in [/etc/ntp/step-tickers] in below. See www.pool.ntp.org/en for more information on the NTP pool and which servers you should use.

---

tinker panic 0
restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict default kod nomodify notrap
server 0.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 1.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 2.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 3.uk.pool.ntp.org

# Dont use local clock
#server 127.127.1.0     # local clock
#fudge  127.127.1.0 stratum 10

# Drift file.
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift

# Key file containing the keys and key identifiers used when operating
# with symmetric key cryptography.
keys /etc/ntp/keys

# Specify the key identifiers which are trusted.
#trustedkey 4 8 42

# Specify the key identifier to use with the ntpdc utility.
#requestkey 8

# Specify the key identifier to use with the ntpq utility.
#controlkey 8

---

The conf directive "tinker panic 0" instructs NTP not to give up if it sees a large jump in time. This is important for coping with large time drifts and also resuming virtual machines from their suspended state. The directive "tinker panic 0" must be at the top of the ntp.conf file.

It is also important not to use the local clock as a time source, often referred to as the Undisciplined Local Clock. NTP has a tendency to fall back to this in preference to the remote servers when there is a large amount of time drift.
An example of such a configuration is:
server 127.127.1.0
fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 10
Comment out both lines.

Now for the step tinker file. This is to get the time to synk up at a reboot and not rely on the hardware. So add / edit the file [/etc/ntp/step-tickers]:

---

0.uk.pool.ntp.org
1.uk.pool.ntp.org
2.uk.pool.ntp.org
3.uk.pool.ntp.org

---

Now everything is ready for the CentOS to look after it's self we just need to set the time correctly.


If you want to get the time closer set the time with the date command:
e.g. for 18th December 2012 at 10:00 am use

date 1218100012

This will stop ntp getting in a flap when the time is a long way off , and makes the correction quicker.

Then set the synchronise the time manually:

ntpd -q

Set the hardware clock to the newly synchronised time:

hwclock --systohc

Set up ntpd to automatically run and synchronise the time, as below:

chkconfig ntpd on

Now reboot the server and everything should be OK.

Just to add on a windows 2008 server use

w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:0.pool.ntp.org,1.pool.ntp.org,2.pool.ntp.org,3.pool.ntp.org
w32tm /config /update
w32tm /resync

to get it to check the time and

w32tm /stripchart /computer:time.windows.com /samples:3 /dataonly

to check the time

Directory Listing Order

When in DOS if you type dir you get a directory listing in the order the machine finds the entries. I preferred them ordered.
So when on a new machine I use the following.

setx dircmd "/OG /ON"

This puts all the directories first and lists everything in alphabetical order. Again like the last blog you might need to log out and log back in to see if it is working.

P.S. to see the results straight away use

set dircmd=/OG /ON

Setting a command prompt on Server Core

Ok so have a nice new instillation of server core, First shock there is no GUI, but it is server core so what did you expect!

This now old school server administration, but I find that the prompt that they give you is a bit lame and does not really help you very much. So the first thing I do is run the following.

setx prompt "[%computername%]$_$d$s$t$_$p$_$g"

But after doing this you see not change!

You have to log out and then back in again to see the result. Now your command prompt has changed from

C:\users\Administrator.domain>_

to

[SERVER]
14/11/2012 10:59:38.74
C:\Users\Administrator.domain
>_

Far more useful.

P.S. to see the results straight away use

set prompt=[%computername%]$_$d$s$t$_$p$_$g

Breast Cancer Awareness (Yet again)

Here we (yet) again, silly posts on Facebook with women putting in things like

‎7 inches - 5 minutes

Shoe size is used again. Can't they be a bit more imaginative.

Inches	their shoe size
Minutes	how long they do their hair

Breast Cancer awareness (again)

It is that time again. :(

Women all over Facebook are posting a fruit as a status. So here is the list.

Blueberry	I’m single
Pineapple	It’s complicated
Raspberry	I’m a touch and go woman
Apple	Engaged
Cherry	In a relationship
Banana	I’m married
Avocado	I’m the “other one”
Strawberry	Can’t find the right one
Lemon	Wish I was single
Grape	Wants to get married.

The final chapter to the bike accident.

It is now 15 months since the accident. I last posted something here about the accident on 7^th July last year, and that was very brief. Before that it was on 23^rd February last year just 12 days after the accident.

So what has happened in the meantime? Some of you will have been keeping up with me on Facebook so will know some of this.

Summery "All sorted (ish)"

• The 'white van man' first pleaded not guilty to "driving without due care and attention", then changed his mind on the morning of the trial to guilty.
• Lots of letters about the damages, loss of earning, etc.
• I saw a doctor (for the insurance claim) who said everything would be back to normal in 18 months, I am not sure if that was 18 months from the accident or from when I saw him. I did not believe him then and I still don't believe him now.
• A settlement was agreed after I had to rewrite the letter to the court from my claim firm.

And with the settlement we splashed out on a new vehicle.

Since we had time to look and we knew what we wanted we had to pay out a bit more (a lot more really) than what we really wanted to spend.

Some of the things we wanted were

• Not too old.
• Low mileage with a service history to match.
• Two Captain seats in the front (not a bench seat for three).
• Three seats in the back so it could act as a 'normal' car.
• Car lined (not ply lined).
• Enough power to pull a caravan easily.
• Enough space to put three cages in for the dogs. And a fourth later on or when needed.
• Not too much of a gas guzzler!

Four wheel drive would have been a nice to have but impossible to find with all the other things we wanted as well.

We also picked the collective brains of our friends in agility to see what they would recommend or stay away from.

You will all know of the expression costing an arm and a leg, well this just cost the leg.

We have ended up a very nice Mercedes Vito Dualiner 115 Sport Comfort Compact in Obsidian Black. With tinted side and rear windows.

There it is kitted out with the cages in the back.

We usually have the middle seat in the back down acting as a table, and we can see into all the cages as well.

It is a nice drive and it is being used as one of our 'every day' cars. Not too thirsty, it is doing about the same MPG as the Renault Laguna Estate that we replaced this with. We have still kept the Nissan X-Trail as well, which has proved handy (more later).

A beautiful story: Faith - dog

This dog was born on just before Christmas in 2002. He was born with 2 legs -
He of course could not walk when he was born. Even his mother did not want him.

His first owner also did not think that he could survive and he was thinking of 'putting him to sleep.'

But then, his owner, Jude Stringfellow, met him and wanted to take care of him.

She became determined to teach and train this little dog to walk by himself.

She named him 'Faith.'

In the beginning, she put Faith on a surfboard to let him feel the movement.
Later she used peanut butter on a spoon as a lure and reward for him for standing up and jumping around.
Even the other dog at home encouraged him to walk.
Amazingly, only after 6 months, like a miracle,
Faith learned to balance on his hind legs and to jump to move forward.

After further training in the snow, he could now walk like a human being.

Faith loves to walk around now.
No matter where he goes, he attracts people to him.
He became famous on the international scene and has appeared on various newspapers and TV shows.

There is now a book entitled 'Faith Walks...A Memoir of a Beautiful Life' published about him. He was even considered to appear in one of the Harry Potter movies.

His owner, Jude Stringfellew, has given up her teaching post and plans to take him around the world to preach that even without a perfect body, one can have a perfect soul'.

In life there are always undesirable things, so in order to feel better you just need to look at life from another direction.

I hope this message will bring fresh new ways of thinking to everyone and that everyone will appreciate and be thankful for each beautiful day.

Faith continued to demonstration of the strength and wonder of life.
He passed ove the rainbow bridge on September 22, 2014
Thre is a Wikipedia article about him.

How safe is your password?

How safe is your password?

Using an nVidia GeForce GT220 graphics card – which can be bought for as just over £50.00 (£30.00 if you can buy in bulk) - with the latest drivers on Windows 7, UKFast's security experts were able to crack a six character password in 12 seconds, a seven character password in less than five minutes, and an eight character password in four hours. Here is a link

OK, so cracking passwords is easy!

So what do you do. This picture shows you two different approaches. Thanks to XKCD for this one.

You can see that the more letters you add the better.

But the other thing that most people fall foul of is having the same password for everything. So if one site get's hacked and you use the same email address and password for everything you could now have lost everything.

Have I been hacked?
No
Could I be hacked?
YES, but I make it very hard.

What do I do?
I use a different email address and password for every website that I have to provide log on information.

How do I do that?

The first part is my email address.

I own a domain and I have a "catch all" email address which means that I can have a different email address for every website that I use, and they all arrive in one inbox.

E.g.
tesco@mydomain.com --> I use this for Tesco
argos@mydomain.com --> This one for Argos
gooutdoors@mydomain.com --> and this one is from a camping suppliers.

That is the first part, this also means that I can catch websites 'selling' me email address to spammers. I have caught a few because of this. To do this you have to own a domain.

The second part is different passwords for different websites.
You would say that this sounds like a pain, and "How do I remember all the different passwords?".
Simple, I don't. This is a task for the computer!

For this I use the following.

Password Safe. This is a small program that allows you to manage your old passwords and to easily and quickly generate, store, organize, retrieve, and use complex new passwords, using password policies that you control. Once stored, your user names and passwords are just a few clicks away.

Now because I want to access my passwords both at home, work, and on my phone, I have installed it as thought it was on a USB drive into my Dropbox folder. This is not complicated as it sounds.

Dropbox allows me to access to all my files just about anywhere and on any device that I want it. Any file I save to Dropbox also instantly saves to my computers, phones, and the Dropbox website.

I have a version of this running on my iPhone so I can get to all my passwords wherever I am.

Next question. How much does it cost?

Password safe on a computer. Nothing, but they do ask for a donation.

Dropbox. Nothing for the basic account, that has 2Gb of space, and that is plenty.

Because I also have them as apps on my I phone, you have to pay for them, but they cost less than £10.00 for both of them. Apps are also available for Android phones as well.

So the conclusion is that I have different very long passwords that I don't need to remember and different email addresses for each site.

What ever you do,

DO NOT  USE THE SAME PASSWORD FOR ALL WEB SITES