Mark Gilbert’s Blog

I was most suprised earlier today when performing a quick trace route to Google to test something on my modem when i saw the output below

Traceroute has started …

traceroute: Warning: www.google.co.uk has multiple addresses; using 209.85.129.104
traceroute to www.google.com (209.85.129.104), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 dd-wrt (192.168.1.1) 3.636 ms 7.658 ms 5.475 ms
2 * * *
3 gay-dsl1.wh.zen.net.uk (62.3.83.20) 24.073 ms 90.889 ms 22.237 ms
4 erazmus-ae-0-200.wh.zen.net.uk (62.3.80.201) 24.490 ms 72.865 ms 24.101 ms

The output continues, but notice the name of one of the servers. Nice to see Zen have a sense of humour.

Cheers

Bonjour from St. Simeon, France. I’m on holiday if you hadn’t guessed and so will not be writing a great deal until I get back next week.

See you all soon

Cheers

Reg Hardware has a post about how a computer processor looses clock cycles over time. They blame it on Einstiens theory of time dilation. Have a read, it’s funny stuff.

Cheers

Since my last post I have made some changes under the hood. Mainly to anti-spam engines and the such, but some other minor theme changes have occured too.
The anti-spam changes were brought about by a phone call from Zen, my hosting provider and ISP. They called while I was at work and left a message for me at home. I called them back fairly quickly to see what was wrong. The message I got was there was some kind of problem with my hosting, and indeed there was. When I spoke to Zen who were very courteous and helpful they explained that one of the plugins on my blog was making a of queries to the database. Not in itself a problem, but since I’m on a shared hosting package I share my database with other users. My blog was making so many database queries that it was crippling their database server and stopping other customers from being able to access their databases.

Zen however did the decent thing though and called me about the problem. They could have just taken my site offline or just generally been nasty about it, but they were very reasonable and understanding. We had a brief chat about the plugins that could be causing the problem and I decided it would be best if I disabled them until I could get the problem under control.

This brings me to my next point, how to control the rampant spam. I had a quick peruse of the Wordpress Codex and in particular the Spam tools plugins. I came across Bad Behavior and Spam Karma. Bad Behavior seemed like the answer to the problems I was having with Zen’s database. It filters out spambots based on the type of requests they make, and stops them ever accessing my blog. Spam Karma acts to then remove everything that gets past Bad Behavior. It applies a series of tests to a comment and it’s poster and comes up with a final karma rating, then decides whether it needs further testing, and sends it to purgatory, whether the comment is spam and so goes to hell, or whether its a genuine comment and so goes to paradise.

Have a look at the stats at the bottom of the page, they are quite impressive.

I will keep you updated on how the anti-spam stuff goes.

Cheers

I just wanted to write a brief note to say that I am very pleased with Dabs.com and their return procedure. I bought an AMD Athlon X2 4200+ as a present on someones behalf for xmas. This processor has never been right since day on, crashes and spontaneous reboots but this is the first real chance I’ve had to start doing swap tests and all the other things. So after deciding it was the processor that was faulty it was time to brave the retailers return procedure.

At this point I was pleasantly surprised. All I had to do was log on to my account, select the order and select that I wanted to return an item. After a brief fault description and diagnostic description I was presented with the option of printing a free-post label out for the return, complete with RMA number. This is simply magic compared with what I have had to go through with some other retailers. I am a very satisfied buyer and would deal with Dabs.com again in the future.

Just thought I would mention

Cheers

As we mostly know the supidity of people knows no bounds. BT released some helpdesk calls today and they really do sound like a joke. Have a read, these are 100% genuine.

Customer: My mouse mat isn’t wired up.
BT Advisor: “I’m not sure I understand, your mouse mat shouldn’t have any wires.
Customer: Well, how does it know where my mouse is? Is it wireless?

BT Advisor: Can you click on ‘My Computer’?
Customer: I don’t have your computer, just mine.

Customer: I met a man on the internet, can you give me his phone number?

These sound more like a joke e-mail that might be doing the rounds rather than a serious view of helpdesk calls

Cheers

My Kcorp KLG-575 router recently started having some problems. Wireless dropouts were starting to become common. It needed power cycling more and more often. So I needed a replacement. I spent a long time looking at routers. I very seriously considered getting a Netgear KWGR614. I liked the idea that it was an open source router and I like the Netgear web interfaces.

However these routers are not cheap and thought that for nowt I could just whip out my old Linksys WRT54G routers. The reason I bought the Kcorp in the first place is that the WRT54G routers needed continuous power cycling to keep working. Now I thought they were slowly giving up the ghost.

So off I go, my old black and blue boxes out, all filled with childlike nerd excitement. I fired up one of them and wondered if it would still work. They did, all the required lights came on and so I tried to load up the web interface. To my delight the web interface from the old firmware I had on the router loaded up. It was the Sveasoft Alchemy firmware, not the stock Linksys firmware, but this was still working. I immediately thought that I should get a new version of the firmware but knowing the problems associated with the Sveasoft Alchemy firmware I decided to go for the one other WRT54G firmware I had experience with, DD-WRT. I downloaded the latest version, currently standing at v23 SP2, flashed this firmware to the router and off I went. I was immediately surprised by the quality of the firmware. For an open source handfull of developers outfit it was very fully featured and well written. It offers many features such as QoS, SSH access and so many other things I will simply point you to their wiki. I really do love this firmware it is simply fantastic, but still the problem with needed power cycling continued. That was until I stumbled accross this page at the uTorrent site. They suggested, and it all does sound perfectly reasonable, that the cause of the problem stems from the router tracking old connections for five days. Now with the ammount of connections a P2P network generates this can easily become a problem. So, the solution, simply increase the number of ports allowed to be open and massivly decrease the time connections are tarcked for. On applying these changes and then rebooting the router, as if by magic the power cycling problem had gone away.

So next port of call was to set up the second router and hopefuly use it as a WDS. I followed the instructions provided on the DD-WRT Wiki. This was a straight forward task and very soon I could connect to the WDS client router and access the Internet. So I moved the client router to it’s final location and tried again. It still worked, an I can attest to the range since you can now access the net in my kitchen, which was just a pipe dream before.

So the moral of this story is, if there even is a moral, is that new firmware can fix a lot of problems, and sometimes tweaking settings can be as effective as replacing a product you think might be faulty.

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed reading this, someone commented today that I havn’t done many home-grown personal posts of late, so in one night I’ve fired two off.

Cheers

Really I should qualify that title, wireless networks in the hands of people who have basic understanding of networking are the bain of my existance. As regulars or people who know me personally will know, I work in computer retail as a technician. On any given day roughly 38% of all people who come to me for whatever reason have some issue with wireless networking kit.

I think it might be amusing to list some of the problems I am presented with, so here I go;

A customer may come having bought a wireless router, they went home and tried to set the thing up. They had problems and so they were here talking to me. First question I ask is hav they followed the setup instructions that came with the router, to which the customer replies “no, I thought I just had to plug it in”. It’s no surprise I find myself forever frustrated by wireless networks. People think you can just plug them in, with no other setup required. That is partly the responsibility of the industry, wireless kit is marketed as simple to use, which with a little basic knowledge it is, but without that basic knowledge it might as well be rocket science. Linksys market their routers as having “one touch setup” buttons. Now this does work in the same way that it only takes one press of a button to launch a rocket to the Moon, but without all the correct work beforehand you will crash and burn, same deal with wireless routers.

Next off a customer may come in with a similar problem, they have bought a router and simply cannot get their machine to connect to it. Normally this can be resolved in three questions or less. Question one, is the PC or laptop wireless enabled. If this question draws blank looks or the customer has to ask what I mean then problem solved. If they answer yes then next ask, have you turned the wireless on on the router. Again if this draws blank looks or questions of how you do this or why you need to do it then problem solved. Third and final question would have to be how far away are you from the router. Now this is a vey relavent question since some people beieve that routers work like mobile phones, you can set a router up in your house and then anywhere in the world access your Internet connection.
If the answer to all these questions is good then you can move onto checking to see if the router is actually faulty, slim chance though it is. If you can connect to the router using the customers hardware then a whole new line of inquiry opens up. It is at this point we move onto the joys of checking if they bought a router or an ADSL router. This throws most people. One is clearly marked ADSL router and the other clearly marked simply router, but in a customers mind this makes no difference, after all it’s “computer language” not English. So they buy the cheapest, which is always the router and then we find out they have ADSL.

I should probably mention at this point that as a company we do offer an in home network install. It is always worthwhile, I have never heard of anyone being dissatisfied with the service, but 99% of people balk at the cost. It does cost almost as much as the hardware but then this is the case with a lot of things. When you have a car serviced, the cost of labour most often comes to more than the parts. The cost of four spark plugs, some oil and maybe a filter isn’t a great deal, but labour to fit these parts normally comes to more than the cost of those parts. No one queries this when it comes to a car, but for some reason when its networking kit or a computer in general labour costs are somehow offensive to a customer.

Next problem is people who got slightly further up the evolutionary chain and bought a router knowing they already have a modem sent to them by their ISP. Obviously modems sent by most ADSL ISP’s are USB based and so will simply not work with routers since they require an ethernet modem not a USB modem. USB modems are of course the devils spawn anyway but that’s a topic for another post.

Next problem, and another one created really buy the industry is incompatibility between different manufacturers proprietry wireless implementations. All the major router manufacturers produce high speed wireless kit, non of which are compatible with each other. So plastering “125Mb” or “MIMO” accross the front of your networking kit with no mention of these incompatibilities is just great. People buy this kit with the plan of it working with a Centrino based laptop, for example, then they will get no benefit from these features.

I really dont know if there is a solution to this problem. Uneducated people will always but wireless kit, you cannot educate everyone or force knowledge on people before they buy the kit. Manufacturers could help things buy not advertising products based on features that only work with the same manufacturers products, but that wont happen either. There is surely good money to be made by misinforming the public at large. My personal view is that network installs should be compulsary with all network kit. Again this could never happen, people wouldn’t stand for it. Of course I could enforce it personally, we can refuse sale to anyone for any reason, but management would never allow it. The only conclusion I can draw is that there is simply nothing I can do about this. I will forever in this job be continuously be plagued be wireless network problems where peope have bought the wrong kit, or simply dont have a clue how to get the stuff setup. Obviously we are under no obligation to return working network kit because a customer doesn’t know how to set it up. However customers have a terrible habit of feeling somehow aggrieved if we dont return network kit that isn’t faulty because they’re unable to get it working, and so management cave in and return it anyway.

Ho Hum

Just a little thing to make the blood boil over here in the UK, Vista pricing.
On the Amazon US site Vista costs $379.99, while the Amazon UK site did have Vista for sale at £369.99. Now at a current exchange rate of 0.5323 Pounds to the Dollar that means the Amazon US copy of Vista costs £202.26. WTF means that we in Britain should pay £167 more than the US for the same software? It is a piece of software, it costs no more to sell in the UK than it does in the US. This sort of extortion, and it is extortion plain and simple, cannot be allowed to continue. This kind of disparity in pricing on software is profiteering, with Microsoft making silly profits from me and my fellow Britains for no good reason. If someone can come up with a valid reason for this price difference then please add your comments to this post.

Cheers

My life has been very busy over the holiday period and as a result the time I got to write on here has been limited. I am starting to get more time now though and so I will hopefully be able to get more stuff posted.

Macworld is in two days. I’m looking forward to it, wish I was going, but I really can’t afford it. I think of the stuff we all know is coming I’m most looking forward to the iPhone. Apple could do for mobile phones what they did for portable music players with the iPod. I would also like to see a silly eight core Mac Pro. Not that I would have any use for it at all. It would just satisfy the little nerd inside.

I bought myself a 24″ iMac for Xmas which I’m very pleased with. It’s very big and looks the works. Performs very well too. I did have to hack my desk to bits to fit it on though. It was just too big for the alcove formally occupied by my Sony 19″ TFT. So with the hacksaw out on Xmas day I am now all good.

Also got a Wii and it is fantastic. I have never met anyone who had a go and didn’t enjoy it. Nintendo are really onto a good thing with it. Even my 82 year old Gran likes it.

Well hope I’ll be able to get more stuff posted on here now so check back soon.

Oh and if you’re still bored in the mean time have a look at ScaredOfPoo.com.

Cheers

This is a totally shameless plug for a mate. He’s selling his Vaxhaul Astra 1.8 SXi and has set up a web site with all the details on. If anyone is interested in buying this car then have a read over at www.buymyastra.co.uk, all the details of the car are on there as well as contact details. The car really is a good buy, so if you’re interested have a look and get in touch.

Cheers

I managed to get the calendar problem fixed. It involved updating to the latest release candidate of the livecalendar plugin. This seems to have fixed the issue which did appear to be a problem with the permalinks.

Cheers

The calender is still an issue for me. I can’t seem to get it t work correctly, so it’s been disabled until I can fiddle with the code. Other than that though, most things seem to be ok now. Any people who are experiencing problems, just use the e-mail link in the sidebar to let me know what they are. I will always do my best to fix the issues people are seeing.

For the most part though the site is more responsive and generally a lot better for moving hosting. So thanks to Zen Internet for providing both my broadband and now my hosting. Customer service and reliability with them has always been second to none for my broadband connection, and I’m expecting similar things out of their hosting solutions.

Cheers

I’ve changed the hosting providor for my site tonight. The site should now be a lot faster, but I have still to get all functionality back. The majority of things are working, and the rest should be fixed over the weekend.

Cheers

Why is it so hard to get a video to embed properly in my site, and fit with the alignment of my site and display in all browsers without lots of testing? You would think it’s simple, but no. I still don’t test for IE anymore, I gave up on that thing a long time ago. I got sick of bloody code hacks to make the thing work.

Anyway, the Video now tests ok in Safari, Opera, Firefox and Camino, so all seems to be well.

Cheers

Now I think about it I don’t just want a Wii, I need a Wii. Since moving to the Mac platform just over 18 months ago I do play far less games. Simply because they are not available. I have however discovered a fantastic Quake 3 client in universal binary for for the Mac, ioQuake3.
Parallels and boot camp eased my pain somewhat, I could now play older games, so things like IGI:2, C&C Generals and the like all came within reach. I am still excluded from new games though. Anything which requires hardcore 3d work is a no no for me. So this leaves me a with a problem, no original games. Hence why I need a Wii.

Unlike the XBox 360 the games that come out of Nintendo are for the most part very original and innovative. Plus the 360 is still fairly expensive, slightly more so than the Wii which is priced at £179.99. I’m dying to have a Wii so I can fiddle and use the clever controller. Yes the PS3 is supposed to have tilt sensors in it’s controller too, but sadly I don’t own a house which I could re-mortgage to afford a PS3. It’s expensive, and everything I hear about the console is bad. Not to mention ripping off buyers in Europe. Europe was the PS2’s biggest market, and we will have to pay more, and wait longer for the consle than both Japan and the US. I mean really, Sony must be taking the Wii if they think people are going to buy a PS3 over Nintendo’s baby.

Cheers

Zimbabwe has fallen off the world as far as the Internet is concerned. Only one company provides their connection to the world and since the government run telco is behind on it’s bill to the tune of $700,000 they have dropped the connection speed.

Government owned TelOne had a deal with Intelsat to provide coverage with the Internet at large, but due to the huge ammount of money owed Intelsat has limited bandidth as a result.

Really though since that git Mugabe is looking at an inflation rate of 1200%, and a lack of foreign cash, food, fuel, plus an unemployment rate above 70 percent his connection to the InterGoogle is probably a low priority.

Since he has removed all of his opponents since he came to power in 1980 he really has few other people to blame, so he blames me. Mugabe blames Britain for fronting a campaign of economic sabotage. Well since you have no net connection and can’t “remove” me, FUCK YOU MUGABE.

The only way I can sum that up is ROFL

Cheers

I was shown a rather amusing post on a website yesterday. The gentleman, one Dr. Richard Paley who according to his ramblings is “a teacher of Divinity and Theobiology at Fellowship University”. He first has a little moan about Dawinism and how it defies God and other such crap, which I must admit it does, but then really, what intelligent grown man still believes in an imaginary friend? He goes on to suggest that Darwin was wrong and God created everything and that all the evidence put forward by Darwin was wrong.

Anyway thats all very amusing, people of religion frequently feel the need to strike up conversation to denounce the heathens who believe in Dawinism. What is all the more interesting though is what he goes on to say. He suggests that Apple Macs are the work of satan and promote Darwinism. Since OS X runs on a UNIX code base called Darwin he somehow thinks this is subliminal messaging to entrap and entrick users into accepting Darwinism. What a load of bollocks. Macs are based on Darwinism, just like the story of Jesus was based on a bastard child, oh wait Jesus was a bastard child, Mary didn’t father the child with Joseph but got pregnant some other way. Shit my wife is pregnant, Joseph must have thought, it wasn’t me that did it, must have been some other git, I could never live that down, so I’ll make up some son of God mumbo jumbo and tell people its a miracle. Hmmm.

He suggests that since Darwin OS is released under an open source licence, qhich apparently equates to communism, that this is yet another example of Apples Godlessness and support of Communism. Well for a company that supposedly promotes communism they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves in a capitalist market. What a tit. I mean really I can see him spoon feeding this bullshit to some whitewashed church congregation in one of the southern states in the US.

But he goes on, the Apple logo, an Apple logo with a bite out of it, which apparently is to signify the temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden of eden. Nothing to do with making the logo look different enough from Apple Corps that they wouldn’t get sued, which they did eventually and won this time around.

The ad campaign, “Think Different” comes under fire too. He wonders what we are supposed to think different from? Wellas a guess I would say the great unwashed PC masses. That would seem to make for a sensible ad message from a company that promotes and alternative to the PC. But wait, I’m wrong again, we’re supposed to think different than our Christian upbringing. Duh, of course, why didn’t I see that.

And just when you think the prat is done with his crap he says that Hexley the Darwin OS mascot is really satanic since it looks like a devil. Now we all know that this image evolves from the BSD mascot which was used to signify Daemons. He says that no true christian would want any Daemons running on his computer. What a load of shit. Who the fuck does this guy think he is? Anyway, we’ll not tell him that his web host uses Linux and so will no doubt have all manner of Daemons running.

Again in a startling show of sheer ignorance he suggests that the command chmod and the permission code “666″ is satanic. He suggests that because you have to type this “secret code” to unlock files this is more devil promotion. Ha Ha, what a complete tool, 111 would allow everyone to read a file, 666 is read/write for owner, group and others.

Does he really expect people to take him seriously?

I’ve sent him an e-mail asking whether his website is satanic since its hosted on a Linux server. Hopefully he will respond. The e-mail I sent is shown below;

“I read your article on Evolutionism Propoganda yesterday and found it
most interesting. The parts about Apple Macs and Darwinism were most
interesting. While it is true that Macs use small background
Processes called daemons, Windows uses a similar system called
services. I dont really see what’s in a name. Besides which your web
host New Dream Network, seems to use Linux servers which also run
these awful daemons. The link to this information is here,
www.objectiveministries.org
So I would suggest that if these daemons are satanic then since your
website is based and run on these daemons then it too is satanic.
============================
Mark Gilbert
markgilbert@gmail.com
============================”

Cheers

just when you thought American society could get no more stupid, no more litigious and no more petty comes this.

These people really are the dregs of society and should some free medical treatment along with whatever stupid settlement the court gives, they should be sterilised so they can no longer pollute the gene pool with their simple minded stupidity.

Cheers

Sorry I left so abruptly. I went away on holiday, a much needed 16 days in Spain with my ever suffering better half. Never fear though, I am back now and will start blogging again tomorrow night.

Cheers