Me and LG

There is a reason I don't like LG.
I cannot really put my finger on why.

It's like why I prefer Nvidia over ATI. I probably had a bad experience many years back that has clouded my judgement ever since.

Never one to let my experiences hold me back I decided to set up my LG monitor on my wife's PC.
I just couldn't get it looking right.
Every time I tried to set the resolution near the native setting for the monitor I got a black screen with "out of range"

To cut a long story short, I had to install the monitor driver.
But why?
Why do I have to do this with the LG when I have never had to do this with any monitor.

Don't get me wrong, I have installed monitor drivers before. I just have never had to just to get the screen looking half decent.

Will I carry on disliking LG for no discernible reason?
Yes, not because of this experience, but because I just don't trust LG to do something stupid.

Sys Admin Day Facebook page

While I await the time to design a new sys admin day website I have created the sys admin day facebook page

I hope you will visit and like us.

Let me know what we can add

sys admin day facebook page

Save / Extract Outlook Attachments from emails and save them to a Folder

I have been meaning to post this for a while.
Some VBA code to extract attachments from a folder in Outlook and save them.

You can choose the Outlook folder but it is hard coded to save the attachments to C:\Email Attachments\

Sub AttachDetach()

' *******************************************************************************

' Name - AttachDetach

' Description - Removes Attachements from an Outlook Folder and saves them to C:\Email Attachments\

' Date Changed - 10/03/2011 <-- Please keep this up to date

' Changed by - Dan Thomas  <-- Please keep this up to date

' *******************************************************************************

Dim ns As NameSpace

Dim Inbox As MAPIFolder

Dim item As Object

Dim Atmt As attachment

Dim filename As String

Dim i As Integer

Set ns = GetNamespace("MAPI")

Set Inbox = ns.PickFolder

i = 0

If Inbox.Items.Count = 0 Then

    MsgBox "There are no messages in the Inbox.", vbInformation, _

           "Nothing Found"

    Exit Sub

End If

  For Each item In Inbox.Items

          For Each Atmt In item.Attachments

       filename = "C:\Email Attachments\" & i & Atmt.filename

       Atmt.SaveAsFile filename

       i = i + 1

    Next Atmt

Next item

If i > 0 Then

    MsgBox "I found " & i & " attached files." _

       & vbCrLf & "I have saved them into the C:\Email Attachments folder." _

       & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Have a nice day.", vbInformation, "Finished!"

Else

    MsgBox "I didn't find any attached files in your mail.", vbInformation, _

    "Finished!"

End If

GetAttachments_exit:

   Set Atmt = Nothing

   Set item = Nothing

   Set ns = Nothing

End Sub

New Smart FOX IT Website

We have finally put our new website up today.
As we have fully moved into IT consultancy we needed a different look.

We hope you like our new look, let us know what you think.

IT Consultancy in Bristol - Smart FOX IT

Sys Admin Day Website

I am having a small problem with the sysadminday.co.uk and org.uk web hosting at the moment.
every time I try a drupal or wordpress install I get a 500 internal error.
My provider -  easily.co.uk seems to work with joomla.

I will ring them this week and try to sort it out.

At times like this I really miss my web server.
Unfortunately it is sitting upstairs on the floor.
I am open to suggestions of what I can ho with a HP DL380

I might put it running in the shed as if I run it in the house I cannot get to sleep

Top cars list

We are nearing the end of another year and TV is full of top 50 things about blah.
I quite like these programmes and I thought of creating my own end of year list.

Favourite cars that I have owned.

As in the top 50 things about blah programme tradition I will count down.

14. F reg 1.1L Renault 5 - In white. This car was a replacement for my Ford Fiesta that I crashed into a Cavalier. It was an interesting car that had the wrong suspension leg attached. This made driving it challenging, but at least I didn't crash it much.
Price Paid - ???

13. C reg 1L Ford Fiesta - I really don't like small cars. This maybe because they are not that good in a crash. This was aptly demonstrated when I crashed my Fiesta that I had bought 30 days before into a Cavalier. (Head on in a lane. It was 50/50 blame) The Cavalier was able to drive away, the Fiesta was not so lucky.
Price Paid - 200 pounds and the Sierra

12. H reg 1.4L Ford Orion - This car was so underpowered it hurt. It leaked oil a lot and in the end I sold it for 40 pounds.
Price Paid - 600 pounds

11. C reg 1.6L Ford Sierra - My first car. I went through a lot in this car.
A wall, a road sign, garage door, various drainpipes and I once reversed into my neighbours car. He didn't park behind me after that. It was fun due to it being rear wheel drive. Unfortunately the previous owner hadn't looked after it and it had turned from red to a pinkish colour. It was also the first car in which I was stopped by the police in. The officer thought I was racing him. I wasn't - honest!
Price Paid - 200 pounds

Into the top 10

10. P reg? 1.6L Daewoo Nexia - One of the engine mounts came off and the engine fell out just 2 months after I had bought it. I kept it for a year and in that time did over 30,000 miles.
Price Paid - about 800 pounds

9. 52 reg 1.3L Daihatsu Hijet - I liken this car (van actually) to a go-kart on stilts. Real wheel drive with the added threat of rolling it at any moment. I never did roll it, but I did own it for over 3 years. One of the few vehicles that lasted more than a year. It ran on LPG which was half the price of petrol.
Price Paid - 5200 pounds and the Daewoo

8. J reg 1.8L Vauxhall Cavalier - I owned this one for a year and a bit and then crashed it in a lane at about 60 mph. Thankfully my brother knew someone who could fix it. After that the front drivers wheel was half an inch further back than the front passengers wheel.
Price Paid - 1,200 pounds and the Renault

7. 03 reg 1.7L Vauxhall Astra - A good workhorse that I owned for 3 years and my only diesel. Finally the clutch and fuel pump failed. I was broke at the time and swapped it for a Rover Cabriolet.
Price Paid - 3000 pounds

6. P reg 1.8L Mercedes C180 - This is the car I currently drive. It is electric blue. This colour was applied on top of the original red and done very badly. At least it is easy to find in a car park.
Price Paid - 500 pounds

Now it gets exciting as we reach the top 5

5. J reg 2L Toyota  Celica - This might of been higher but after 5 months it caught fire. Someone (not me) had left a spanner in the engine bay which rested on the wiring loom. eventually it shorted and the car burned out. I was sad that day
Price Paid - 4,800 pounds and the Cavalier

4. M reg 1.6L Rover 216 Cabriolet - This was an emergency car. It was fun to drive with the roof down. Unfortunately I owned it for just over a month in the winter
Price Paid - The Astra

3. H reg 2.2L Subaru Legacy - This was a great car but too expensive to keep. I would bald the tyres really quickly as the transmission was automatic and my right foot is heavy. Had lots of fun in it and would definitely get anther one.
Price Paid - 500 pounds

2. M reg 4L Jeep Cherokee - I loved driving the Jeep. Really fun in 2 wheel drive in the wet, but also able to go almost anywhere in 4 wheel drive. Big, loud and fun. I got 12mpg on LPG out of it.
Price Paid - 600 pounds and the rover

And with much fanfare!!!


1. Old M reg (1974) 1.3L MG Midget Mk III - This list is based on the order of which cars I want to drive now. This classic always wins. When driving you are sitting on the rear wheels. This makes it great for drifting. Yes it spent more time on the back of a tow truck and it was made by British Layland. It is still my favourite car I have owned.
Price Paid - 1,200 pounds

What about the future?

On my list of cars to own in the future are;
Alfa Romeo
Rolls-Royce (Classic)
Toyota Supra
Mercedes S Class (old one)
Another Jeep Cherokee
Jeep Patriot
Dodge Charger

But what I get next is anyone's guess

Ordered SKY - Wait for BT

I am moving to a rented cottage and for the first time I am going to have SKY TV.
I have a question.
The SKY engineer can install the dish on the 23rd of December. This will involve a visit and quite a bit of work.
I have a telephone line which is disconnected.
There is no hardware to put up unlike the SKY install.
When is the earliest that BT Openreach can reconnect the line?

January the 18th!

Am I missing something?

How can one company that has to do a lot of work and book a visit in 5 days time. While other who doesn't have to do anywhere the same amount of work cannot book anything it for at least a month?

Unfortunately I am not Alan Sugar, I doubt that I can do the -

making bt CEO sorry he got out of bed this morn

Oh well.