Shoegirl - the blog

If you install Windows 2008R2 from an MDT prep done on a G6 or G7, you'll quickly spot the gaping hole where drivers should be for NIC drivers for the new broadcom 10GB network cards.  Well, there is that, as I mentioned previously, plus another juicy problem with phantom iSCSI client devices appearing in device manager.

I haven't actually figured out how to install these if you need them, but if you are not, then you need to clear the yellow bangs that appear in device manager, because either you can't disable these or install a driver.

Here is the fix.  Back in my early days on hands-on madness, HP used to supply the broadcom suite as standard for the nics.  No longer, you need to manually install to disable these.  Here's how:


To turn off the iSCSI offloadDownload the Broadcom ADvanced Control Suite from http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtremeii10.php#mgmt_apps - end of pageInstall on the server with the card installedOpen the control suite and change …

. . . you start describing yourself as "Ireland's top x/y/z."

Yesterday I received a well-timed (and probably well-deserved) verbal slap in the face from doyenne of gay bars in Dublin herself, who had lined up a gig with a washed out, bankrupt pop diva yet again attempting to make a comeback to the pop world.  My comment, "Is she reduced to THIS?" was a tongue-in-cheek slap to what, in fairness, is actually quite a good public house, but do we really have to keep up with the showbiz trend of using gay bars to a) re-invent failed z-list celebs or b) give them a renewed lease of life on the pride circuit for the rest of your living days?  Why can't we have QUALITY entertainment on the scene?  And not just be used by the celebrity industry as a cheap way to get a few bums on seats or a few bob in their no-hoper pockets?

Oh yes, I've seen them.  Mostly at Prides.  The Vengaboys.  The Cheeky Girls.  Yer wan out of Steps.

You have to credit Sydney Lesbian an…

Dear LIC:
First may I express my wholehearted thanks to you for support you showed to myself and my former partner when I was in London in late 2001.  It was a time of my life of extreme hardship, unemployment, borderline homelessness, and the advice and support that the centre offered to me at that time was invaluable, and helped me cope with very difficult personal circumstances.  The centre is a fantastic resource for the Irish and indeed the entire community, one which I hope continues to exist for the sake of many people now forced into economic exile.
Its with deep sadness that I see that the centre is to be used as venue for the Radical Feminist conference in June.  I always understood such venues to be welcoming places for all of the community, and in particular to respect those who are most oppressed.  RadFem2013 not only expressly asks women who have undergone gender transition from their biological gender to stay away, they also ask "born" women in …

I had one of those nice warm fuzzy moments this weekend. I was up earlyish on Saturday, and while treating myself to the customary "I've-the-weekend-off" scrambled eggs on toast with big pot of tea, I turned on Sky Go. ESPN's "gold" channel was either on freeview/part of the subs, or whatever this weekend. They were showing vintage rugby from 2005's 6 nations tournament.

Now the one and only thing my last ex and I had in common was an interest in rugby. Really, honestly, that was it. Well, there was one two other things, but they're well below the boundary line for blogs, so really the rugby thing was a highly critical part of the relationship, a sort of common lynchpin through which we could actually enjoy SOMETHING in common without looking confused, cringing or biting one's tongue.

I recall the 2005 tournament well. We were in domestic bliss at the time, were pretty much in a good place all round. Anyway, we spent the championship weeken…

Its been quite a while since I last featured Jean Byrne.  She continues to go from strength to strength, and sartorially delight the RTE News viewers.  I see now RTE have finally enlightened themselves enough to place RTE player entries for Weather into a separate programme to the 6 and 9 news.  That's nice for folk like myself who hear enough weeping and gnashing of teeth to have to bother listening to even more on the news.  The front page does me fine, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, at Christmas we had this delightful ensemble:




The weather, as you will no doubt have noticed, was shite.  But thats always the case here.
Have a nice weekend!

HP's newer blades have some cracking specs and very good hardware to go with them, and are great for ESX: I installed a bunch of ESX blades in cluster as part of a scope out for my client's customer last year, and had a number of hiccups getting G7 blades to work with 4.0u4 of ESX, so I expected some bother in getting G8 to install Windows 2008R2 from an MDT based deployment.  Here's how I sorted out the problems.

Access to the iLO 4.0

First you need to configure access to the iLO.  Here's what to do to setup the enclosure ILO configuration


Logon to OA (thats the web page for the C7000 blade enclosure for you mere mortals)
Go to enclosure settings and expand the menu
Select "enclosure bay IP addresses"
Configure the IP settings for the device bay
Scroll to end of screen and click apply
-->note - you'll probably need to logon and logout - the (i) should disappear from the device image on the front view on the graphic display
You should now be able to ac…

Back in late November, just before the budget, I decided I was sick of it all.  Sick of the negativity, sick of the viciousness, the so-called "river of bile", which I think is real, of a spew of hatred online, offline, in the papers, on the TV, the media in general.  The pathetic, fawning pseudo-left decrying the misfortunes of the poor while they refuse to pay their household charge and acknowledge all of the nice things they've basically been granted by the very system which they purport to fight.  No wonder, this weekend, we found that the good old Irish have rediscovered their love for the traitors who created all of the mess in the first place, Fianna Fail.

Anyway, I digress, because this last 3 months has ended up being hugely enriching.
I stuck reading the business and technical media - HBR, Wired, the New Yorker, the Gramophone.  And being back "home" (well round the corner from home, in my own rented apartment), I'm near enough to the border to pi…

Folks, if you are going to comment on somebodies blog, particularly one like this that is often "technical" in some way or another, don't do the following.  Don't insinuate that I'm a bit thick or something and thats why I had difficulty with a setup.  Don't suggest fixes that I've clearly stated I managed to resolve months ago.  Don't question why I went for one operating system over another (I AM A PROFESSIONAL WINDOWS SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR - DOES THAT EXPLAIN ANYTHING?????)  And above all, don't finish it off by asking "any suggestions" to your own unresolved technical issue from this silly girl who god-love-her, has the neck and nerve to think she work in IT as a woman and be respected for technical skills!

PS Try using a fixed ip and map your drives to an alias rather than a physical address?