Firefox, Novell client, and Microsoft ISA, oh my!

If you want to access Internet resources from within UCT, you traverse some sort of proxy server.
For "performance reasons" UCT now use Microsoft ISA instead of Novell BorderManager.

UCT is reasonably enlightened, Mozilla Firefox is pre-installed.
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Hello? 1.0.8? Heckfire that's old!
In fact, 1.0.8 was released after the sunset announcement for the 1.0.x line.

So why not install 2.0.0.3 or even Gran Paradiso 3.0 Alpha 3 (handy-dandy LEG mirror for the UCT-enabled)? It works fine and most of the intranet stuff supports Firefox well.

BUT

Since we are using generally using NT 5 (er...Windows XP), ISA ends up trying to authenticate with the local workstation credentials, which are pretty useless as we don't login to the local workstation with our UCT credentials, but rather some stub account. So when you try surfing, you end up with an endless amount of popups asking for credentials for ISA. You can type in the correct[ed] version of your username and password, but even asking Password Manager to remember the password does not help.

The trick is to open the hardcore configuration (go to about:config) and search for network.auth.use-sspi and disable it. Then enter the username/password combo once and let it be remembered.

Et voilá!

Stolen PC phones home

Looks like my stolen PC just phoned home after a spell of chilling out somewhere...

The Geneva UCT Jet d'Eau

In a surprise move to ensure all of the watering of the garden beds was complete before 10h00, the maintenance services decided to bring a little bit of Switzerland to South Africa, et voilá:

The Leslie Commerce parking lot (oh, and the gardens too) receiving a proper drenching. Pity the poor motorcyclists that had parked out of the way of the automobiles, only to be soaked by this ode to l'eau.

Maybe it is some sort of subtle Objectivism reference: it is outside of the Commerce building after all...

Something old, something new

(from Bruce Sterling's Flickr photostream from his Turin trip)

It has a cute little woven basket because it's an ITALIAN Segway.

McDonald's committed to a healthy lifestyle

I snapped this picture at McDonald's in Cavendish Square in Claremont.

Since McDonald's has now embarked on a healthy lifestyle campaign in order to hold down negative publicity.

And you can see that they are really committed to it...except that the top magazines are over 2 m up, and that they are tucked behind a column next to the entrance to the counter / service area.

In all fairness, Mcdonald's biking is not such a ludicrous idea