Madrid, via Easyjet

Got back from Madrid on monday (friend's wedding). Really nice place - we stayed in the NH Hotel at Coslada, which was actually quite good - friendly staff, clean environment, excellent state of repair etc.

Madrid itself is brill - lots of nice places to eat and drink, nice and warm at this time of year, and lots of cool things to see in the city centre (and we went there on a Sunday, so I suspect its even better on a sensible day).

However. We got there (and back) with Easyjet. They shouldn't be called "Easy" Jet. They should be called something else, like "How hard can you possibly make it jet". Check-in was actually good, and the cabin crew were above average as well - but the praise ends there.

They don't allocate seats at check-in (which is why it is so quick and there are smaller queues), however, this turns boarding into what can only be called a "stampede". The guy handling it at Gatwick dealt with this by shouting and screaming at people - not ideal - although it worked. At Madrid, they didn't even try, and just let people push and shove to get through. Rubbish.

Oh, and on the way there, they ran out of proper food (e.g. manky sandwiches) by row 8. Not good on an Airbus 320.

Avoid passport control queues with IRIS

If you travel frequently in/out of the UK (via Heathrow/Gatwick), and don't always take luggage, then this may be of great interest to you.

Next time you fly, you can submit to an iris scan (well, a photo), which then allows you to use the "Fast Track" lane at border control - where a camera scans your face and eye, rather than the standard queue and passport examination.

When I came back into the country this weekend, there was no queue at the automated terminal - the one chap who I saw use it passed the huge queue which I was trapped in, and in a few seconds was back in the UK. I had to wait another 20 mins to get through.

Of course, I still had to wait for nearly an hour for my bags to show up, but thats a different story!

The Royal Maybe

Recently, a friend commented to me on difficulties which he has had with the Royal Mail - related to Amazon (but not through any fault of Amazon) - whereby various things he had ordered simply failed to arrive.

I thought this unusual.

I ordered something from Amazon.

Two weeks later - no sign of my package, or any attempt to deliver it.

We shall see how things progress!

David Cameron is.. well.. read for yourself

Excellent bit of commentary on the state of our country (and its politics), here. 'Nuff said.

Intel ProSET Windows 2003 SP2 - Redux

Further to this, advice from intel is:

For Windows* XP and Windows* 2003 Server:

1. On the target system, click the Start menu and click Run.
2. Type dcomcnfg in the text field and click OK. The Component Services Console Root window will open.
3. In the left pane, double-click Component Services, Computers, My Computer, and DCOM Config.
4. In either pane, right-click NCS2Prov and select Properties. The DCOM configuration properties window will open.
5. In the NCS2Prov Properties window, click the Identify tab. Change the user account to "the launching user."
6. Click OK to exit the NCS2Prov Properties window. Close the Component Services window.

This seems to resolve the issue (when viewing from remote desktop) far more elegantly.

Intel ProSET 12.2 on Windows 2003 SP2 - Solved

Aha. OK. A bit convoluted, but, the following worked:

Download latest proset drivers.
Install.
Run installer again and select "Remove".
Delete network cards and reboot.
Wait for windows to finish installing them with its own drivers (MS brand, not Intel).
Run installer again and install.

I now have configuration tabs, yay!

Intel ProSET 12.2 on Windows 2003 SP2

It seems that when using the intel proset drivers (v12.2, I believe) with one of their server cards (PRO/1000 MT Dual Port), under Windows 2003 Service Pack 2, it isn't possible to get into the tabs for advanced properties, e.g. Teaming, et al.

This makes setting up teamed network cards (and ultimately a multicast NLB cluster on top of these) quite tricky.

Bugger. Time to talk to Intel!