I'm Rob Marshall, a consultant who specialises in the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager product. I like to share, i do so by blogging and helping out when I can in the MS SMS newsgroups and participating in the ConfigMgr MVP program.
I was awarded and joined the program in 2009. It'd be an understatement to say it has to be one of the best experiences an IT engineer can have, if they really enjoy specialising in a product.
My biggest weapon for troubleshooting is, my formidable knowledge, no, only joking, you, the community. I find if I cannot answer a question, then I can usually find the answer from using Bing\Google, pouring over the documentation, and if that doesn't work, tinkering in mine or someone elses virtual lab.
The blogs pretty much about ConfigMgr, but it is also a platform for me to express my random urges to display something I've stumbled across, and that I imagine would entertain you or what not as equally as it did me.
This morning, around 1am I had to throw on some clothes and run outside to see why my car alarm was going off. It was the most bizarre way to wake up, I was half awake trying to make sense of what my fiance was saying ... "Zzzzzz .... wake up ... car .... alarm ... from TV or is it your Car?". We'd left the TV on, some cops and robbers show was on, sirens blazing in a car chase of all things, while in the background the gentle but insistant bleating of a car alarm, confusing or what!
So, I went and peeked out of the window, normally all I can see of the car is the headlights as it's parked on higher ground, couldn't see a thing, got higher up and took another look out the window, where has my car is gone?
And now, back to throwing clothes on and running outside, to see my car has rolled in to the road! On the way out I got the car keys and was pressing the Lock button in case someone was inside trying to rob the stereo or something, daft, but I thought i'd lock them for a few moments, no one in sight, the car had just literally rolled back off the parking bay, and in to the road, blocking almost both lanes! This is just after 1am when the roads here become busy with folk coming back from a night out, and already a few cars and a bus had pulled up and was waiting for me to get my car out of the way! Sheepishly I put her back on the parking bay, really engaged the handbrake and when back to bed. So lucky there wasn't an accident, someone passing as she rolled out of the bay, lucky she didn't continue to the other side of the road and in to the wall or something crazy!!!
What a night, the Phantom hand-brake releaser strikes!
She's in gear now, with the hand-brake, just in case ;-)
Honda Civic? Had to take ours in to the Honda dealer for some lovin' as they had issued a recall due to a number of customers cars going for an unexpected roll as the hand brake wasn't engaging correctly.
Alfa Romeo, I might give the dealership a call, see if this is happening to others! Probably just a slack brake cable ;-)
LOL reminds me of a couple of incidents:
1. First car Morris Marina - Rushed home to grab something. Half parked on the pavement/ road. Flew out the car slamming the door behind me (didn't bother locking it - had to use keys in those days LOL), dashed inside tearing upstairs. Got what I needed and ran back outside. NO CAR. After a lot of noise in the trouser department looked down the road and a 100 yards or so there sat my car. Ran and jumped in only to find the handbrake wasn't on. Lucky it was during the day when everyone was at otherwise it would have crashed into the neighbours cars.
2. Alarms - Second car Ford Orion with the Ford alarm on it. Damn thing would go off for no reason so I got to the point of not bothering to turn it on. When I sold the car I politely informed the dealer where the arming switch was. His reply "oh great it's got the Ford alarm on it :-(" as if to say it was more trouble than it was worth.
Happy days.