Author: Trefor Davies

Liver of life, father of four, CTO of trefor.net, writer, poet, philosopherontap.com

Reality is a concrete slab off eBay

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 21 April, 2014
No Comments on Reality is a concrete slab off eBay

I ordered some concrete slabs off the internet. Bought them on eBay actually. 21 off 600 x 600mm for £57. Had I bought them from a shed they would have been something like £120. They are going to form the base for the playhouse that I’m converting into a shed. We are using the patio where the playhouse currently stands as the new basketball court. As it happens the slabs came from under a deck so it would seem that they are eminently suitable for their new purpose.

I collected them from somewhere in Lincoln. Before setting off I looked up the address on Google Maps and even saw the house on Streetview. V useful. When I got there I had to reverse down a very narrow drive and in the end was only able to shift half of them. They are so heavy I didn’t want to risk knackering the Jeep’s suspension. Going to have to go back and get the others another time.

It seems strange in a world where we live a “virtual” life on the internet that there are actually solid items such as these concrete slabs that intrude on our everyday existence. It’s called reality. I looked it up on Wikipedia: “the state of things as they actually exist rather than as they appear or are imagined”.

Concrete slabs apart we shouldn’t forget that reality is generally much better than the virtual world. It’s a perfect spring day out there – get out and enjoy it:)

End User travel

Creative pics with panorama function on Galaxy S4

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 21 April, 2014
No Comments on Creative pics with panorama function on Galaxy S4

Only just realised you can take some spectacular pics with the panorama function on the phone. The first is a bog std panorama of the departures board at Victoria station. Uses landscape format panned sideways. No particular surprises apart from the occasional train leaving on time.

The next photos were taken in the vicinity of Victoria but using a landscape format in a vertical panorama. Allows you to take much bigger canvases.

This is what a std panorama looks like of that scene (ish).

Other panorama images:
Peel
IoM ferry

fun stuff Weekend

Typical British Bank Holiday weather & lazy Sunday mornings #oliveoil #pirateflag

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 20 April, 2014
2 Comments on Typical British Bank Holiday weather & lazy Sunday mornings #oliveoil #pirateflag

Easy on Sunday morning…

We are back to typical British Bank Holiday weather today. It’s ok. I’ve done (ish) all my outdoor jobs for the moment. The sky has darkened and the wind is getting up.

I will have to do the blokey thing and go out to man the bbq at tea time but the bbq has a lid on it and I will have a beer in hand so all possible weather counter measures will in place. The beer won’t protect me from the rain but ensuring I get just as wet on the inside as on the outside seems to negate the effects.

The house is quiet. Although it serves as a shelter to kids 3 & 4 they are past the age of rushing down excitedly to start shovelling Easter eggs down the hatch. Classic FM is on the wireless. The world is at peace.

The photo shows some condiments procured last week on the Isle of Man. Basil infused olive oil and two vinegars: tomato and blood orange. The latter is particularly fine and doesn’t need to be accompanied by oil. A nice bit of organic bread to soak it up from the plate is just the job.

The rain is now coming down in earnest. It’s very relaxing hearing it on the conservatory roof. There are roses and lillies in the conservatory. The rain doesn’t stop the birds. I can hear them singing away. Probably sat on a branch in a bit of shelter chatting to each other – about the weather. It’s not only us humans who do that sort of thing.

Scattered around me are various musical instruments. The conservatory does get a reasonable amount of use all year round and tomorrow hopefully the rain will have moved on and we can have the doors open to the garden. We have people coming to lunch. Another bbq.

Still the rain comes down. It sends a shiver of relaxation through my spine. I’ll have to get showered and dressed soon. When Mrs Davies comes back from her dose of religion I am on chauffeur duties taking her and her pal to a craft fair in Doddington Hall. Ordinarily Anne would drive but Kid2 has taken her car to Pontefract for a weekend doing whatever they do in that part of the world. Look it up on tripadvisor. It will quite possibly identify the only attraction as Pontefract Racecourse. I haven’t looked myself.

Nothing wrong with the races but they do expect you to go home at some point so Kid2 have had to find other diversions to keep herself busy. Probably involves a pub.

Over the fence in the allotments I can see a Lincolnshire flag looking sorry for itself. I must get our camping flagpole out. Keep thinking of doing it. We have a pirate flag and the national flag of Mexico purchased at the football in Cardiff during the Olympics. You know it makes sense. I can tie them both on. That way I’ll always be able to find out house amongst all the others, assuming I’ve forgotten our address and what the house looks like.

I don’t really do craft fairs meself so I will either sit in the caff watching the world go by or nip somewhere else. It’s an adventure. Big pic below is of the oils and vinegars for sale in industrial quantities at Tynwald Mills in the Isle of Man.

Other oil related posts: BP oilspill area superimposed onto map of UK

End User spam

616 spam comments in 24 hrs

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 20 April, 2014
1 Comment on 616 spam comments in 24 hrs

Just done a bit of an experiment. I deleted a load of spam comments from the blog yesterday at 6am and this morning gone back in and counted the little critters again. In just over 24 hours I’ve picked up another 606 spam comments. There may be some legit ones in there but they ain’t gonna be seen amongst the dross (sorry yawl).

It’s basically around 25 spam comments an hour. We never see spam emails any more, at least not when using gmail. This isn’t entirely true as I do get crap from “seo experts” who address me as “Hi” and quote the “can spam act” in the footer. They always get labelled as spam (may have mentioned this before but it’s an ongoing situation).

I’m sure the 25 spam comments an hour far exceeds the rate of spam emails when we used to get them. Although this spam is mostly captured (Akismet) you do have to occasionally remember to permanently delete it or it would start filling up the server.

In the way you used to get quotes about the size of the global email spam problem it would be interesting to look at the equivalent stats for comments.

The pics below show zero comments initially then 616 a day later. There is something very satisfying about pressing the “empty spam” button. It’s a bit like driving down a clear motorway when there is a 10 mile tailback going the other way.

I wonder what the clickthrough rate for a spam comment is. Must be infinitesimally small. You would have to be paticularly stupid to click on one of the links.

Tags Akismet, comments, spam

End User fun stuff Weekend

As sure as chocolate eggs is chocolate eggs

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 20 April, 2014
No Comments on As sure as chocolate eggs is chocolate eggs

Thing is it’s Easter innit. Spring break if you’re from across the pond. And what is traditional on Easter Sunday? We go to church eat chocolate Easter eggs.

This year only kids 2, 3 and 4 are around which will make it a tad cheaper. On the flip side a cheapo egg with chocolate buttons inside doesn’t seem to do the job anymore. The order was for Lindor, Thorntons and “a nice one”.

Waitrose didn’t do Thorntons and whilst I considered chocolate buttons to be within the definition of a nice one I figured it was best to play it safe and buy them all the same one.

Now there are some rules when it comes to Easter eggs the main one being that you have to give your dad a piece. That way it’s possible to indulge without any comments regarding how fattening chocolate eggs are so no you can’t have one. Wouldn’t want a whole one anyway. I’d be constantly brushing my teeth.

The other thing to know about Easter eggs is that every adult member of the extended family has always considered it their duty to buy nephews, nieces and grand children Easter eggs. This results in each kid having a ridiculous surfeit of chocolate all of which is consumed within a one or two day window.

This makes Easter very similar to Christmas which is the other time of year people ~~go to church~~ consume lots of chocolate. They also usually take advantage of the dual public holiday by taking the rest of the week off thus getting 8 days off for “the price of four”. The main difference between Easter and Christmas is that the latter also includes compulsory consumption of vast quantities of alcohol for a month in the run up to the big day. It doesn’t therefore take a month or two for the body to recover from Easter in the way that the aftermath of Christmas is typically characterised.

This Easter the barbecue has been rolled out of its winter quarters and will be exercised today, Easter Sunday and tomorrow, the bank holiday Monday when we have guests coming for an all afternoon session of eating and drinking. At least that is my expectation. Hopefully the guests will think that way too or I’ll have a lot of wine to get through. Suppose I don’t have to open all the bottles!…

So that’s it. enjoy your chocolate eggs, your barbecue or whatever else you do to celebrate the double holiday long weekend Easter spring break. Next week is UKNOF in Reading. Look out for network engineering posts.

Tags Easter, eggs

Business fun stuff

Waitrose free paper and coffee – a partial dilemma #savetheplanet

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 19 April, 2014
3 Comments on Waitrose free paper and coffee – a partial dilemma #savetheplanet

Just got a free newspaper and a cup of coffee from Waitrose. I don’t drink coffee but Anne does so I got her a black one to maximise the chance of it staying warm until I got it home. We only live 5 mins away.

I don’t read hard copy newspapers either. I get them all on the internet, at least those without a paywall. Now this did give me a bit of a dilemma. Here I was taking a freebie totally gratuitously knowing that I probably wouldn’t read it. My thinking was that it would come in handy to light the firepit this weekend. Not great from a planet saving perspective.

This marketing tactic of Waitrose has to be working big time. Anne never used to go there but she often does now. One of her friends just pops in for a coffee without even buying anything. The cost of a few coffee beans is nothing compared with the additional revenues from their ~~more expensive~~ quality groceries and they will get their papers at a heavily discounted wholesale rate.

I’ll finish with a little snippet of a conversation held with my wife over sms:

Anne: Fiery red rice for the salad available in Waitrose

Me: Yay – you can rely on Waitrose to get the basics right

:))

Cop this – one billion downloads

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 19 April, 2014
No Comments on Cop this – one billion downloads

You have to be impressed. Over one billion downloads for the Android Google Play app. It is worth noting though that with over one and a half million ratings which is a pretty good sample size the app only gets three and a half stars. You would think that Google would have had enough feedback to improve the app and up the rating to five stars for something with that many downloads.

Apps to blow your mind (ish):

Cycle gear
collaboration using Google Docs simplifies takeaway order

bitcoin End User travel Weekend

Forty shillings fine

There is still no Bitcoin Exchange UK

Came across this in the Parcel Yard pub in Kings Cross Station. I liked it so took a photo.
When you look at it you can almost imagine the steam trains chuffing by, whistle blowing, engine driver leaning out of his window with blue overalls, cap and red neckerchief.

Keep away from the line. Kids! It’s bloody dangerous.

The fine for being caught is forty shillings. Takes me back. Strange to admit I was around pre-decimalisation. My pocket money was 3d which as I recall bought me a Beano and a sweet or two. It went farthing, ha’penny, penny, 3d, groat, sixpenny, shilling, two bob and two and six. As far as I can remember. Correct me if I’m wrong or have missed one out.

It’s ok to take a nostalgic trip but reality is we are massively better off where we are now. It was a nightmare trying to learn adding up in old money.
Winding the clock forward to now my Bitcoin is worth £277. I paid £292 for it a few weeks back. It’s been up and down over the weeks. V volatile but it’s an experiment. Image below shows fluctuations over the past 12 months. No Bitcoin exchange UK mind.

I’m not sure we are going to be better off with Bitcoin. They don’t take it as payment in the Parcel Yard yet and it won’t get me a Beano. Afaik. Cheers…

Tags Beano, Bitcoin, Cross, King's, Parcel, pub, shilling, Yard

eleanor cross End User

Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – the carving starts

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 18 April, 2014
No Comments on Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – the carving starts

The carving of the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln starts.

Amazing that something of beauty can emerge from within a solid piece of rock – the mantra of the in awe armchair philosopher down the ages when describing a sculpture.

This series of photos shows the start of the carving process. The videos are a short interview with Alan Ward describing the task in hand and one of him doing some carving. On this occasion I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Parking Mad

In a moment of bonding with Kid4 we decided to watch some TV together. Unfortunately there was absolutely nowt on the box. We settled on a programme called Parking Mad.

This has to be extreme desperation in TV programming. We wouldn’t have had the problem when there was only BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. In those days we settled for just having to watch repeats rather than total non-programmes. In fact I still like watching the same repeats these days – Dad’s Army for example.

There is an element of local interest in Parking Mad – some of it is filmed in Lincoln. There’s a bit where the mayor is seen cutting a ribbon around a ticket machine in a new car park. Rent a mayor. A mayor will turn up anywhere there is a bit of ribbon, scissors and a camera. It forms part of their balanced scorecard. KPIs. How many ribbons have been cut in any given month.

The role of mayor is very competitive. Each mayor is measured against his predecessors. How many schools visited, care homes etc. They put a premium on car parks – it’s not often you get a new one opening. Some years you don’t have a single new car park and I can tell you the mayor that year feels really hard done by.

I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong message about Lincoln. It is quite a good place to live really. There’s more to it than car parks though we do of course have our fair share. When we bought our first house it was on Greetwell Gate next to a free car park. As soon as we moved in it changed to a Pay and Display! Swines.

We used to park on the road in front of the house anyway. These was usually never a problem with this because after we had driven off to work other cars belonging to people working in town would arrive and take our spots. The same thing happened in reverse every evening so we always got the same spot right outside the house.

The one time of year we had a problem was during the Lincoln Christmas Market. All weekend visitors would cruise around looking for a free spot trying to avoid paying. Tight gits. We got to the point of arriving home from work on a Friday and just leaving the cars parked for the whole weekend. Christmas Market weekend is quite boozy anyway so a car is of no use.

We began to have guests coming to stay for the weekend to see the market. On these occasions on the Friday night we would park our own cars really inefficiently so that there wasn’t quite enough space between them to park another. It was fun watching motorists pull up along side the gap and curse the fact that we had parked badly thus depriving them of their spot. When our guests turned up I’d nip out and reverse my car just enough to make room for them to slot in. Saw ted.

Come to Lincoln. We have some nice parks and some good pubs and a mayor who likes to cut ribbons. There’s a lovely cathedral too. You should visit.

Easter bunny – one for the ladies – have a nice holiday y’awl

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 17 April, 2014
No Comments on Easter bunny – one for the ladies – have a nice holiday y’awl

Yanow I’m a big softie really. This is a simple photo of a display of flowers in my local Tesco complete with Easter bunny. Aww. One for the ladies – I doubt any of my former rugby playing chums would be interested in such a pic.

What do I care? Have a nice Easter weekend. I hope you aren’t stuck in a traffic jam somewhere.

My name is Andy and I work for Tesco

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 16 April, 2014
1 Comment on My name is Andy and I work for Tesco

Walking to the station this morning en route to an ITSPA meeting in Town I noticed a young suit staring into his phone.

As I got closer I saw that his name was Andy and that he worked for Tesco. His name was displayed on a badge on his lapel. I’m not sure what font size Tesco use but it did the job. I could see it clearly without having to stop and peer.

Don’t ask me why this stuck in my mind, other than the fact that I made a note of his name using my voice recorder. I do that sort of thing.

Continuing with the thread, I used to attend dinners thrown by Dell. A guest speaker entertained and we would have an after dinner debate on the theme of the evening. They were good dinners fair play to Dell.

My only gripe was the size of the font on the name badges. It was far too small to be able to easily read the name, especially considering these dinners were held in private dining rooms dimly lit for atmospheric effect. Clearly labelled badges are important if you are in a room full of strangers with lots of wine flowing. How do they expect me to remember names after all that wine. After one of the dinners I completed the assessment form and said all was good except for the badges.

At the next Dell dinner the badges were the same. No change in font size. Far too small to read. I’m sure it was the usual excellent evening but at the end of it I refused point blank to provide feedback. What was the point? They obviously didn’t read the feedback. Either that or they didn’t consider my feedback worth responding to.

Taking feedback to the extreme one of the readers of this blog was at a trade show in London looking to buy a server. He hung around the HP stand waiting to be sold a box. No sales pitch came forth and in due course, after having his badge scanned and informing HP of his enquiry, left serverless and bought one off IBM just down the aisle.

A few weeks later he received a phone call from a HP sales person following up on the exhibition lead. He related his story, told them they were too late and considered the matter closed.

Wind the clock forward another few weeks and HP were back in touch again. The PA of the VP running the HP server division wanted to know if he would have lunch with the VP to provide feedback of his experience at their trade show booth. Sure said my friend. Anytime.

Only problem is the lunch was to be at HP’s Corporate HQ in California!!! They flew him out a couple of days early and he had lunch with said VP in their company canteen. The whole thing lasted 90 minutes and then they flew him home. I’m sure he had a good time.

One wonders what effect his feedback may have had. I’m also sorry the VP must remain nameless. That’s because I can’t remember his name – nothing to do with the font size of his badge.

The barcode tattoo

First day in the office for over a week and on the way in had to wait at the railway level crossing because the barriers were down. A bloke stood in front of me had what appeared to be a barcode tattooed on the back of his neck, just below the hairline.

I wanted to take a photo or maybe have a go at scanning the barcode but I didn’t think this was a sensible thing to do with someone who was capable of having his neck tattooed in this way. Especially with 60 or so people stood around waiting.

Still, it leaves me wondering what the barcode format used was and what it said. I guess he probably thought it might come in handy in the event of him being rendered unconscious through of overconsumption of snakebite or special brew. A passer by need only scan his neck and tell the taxi driver where to take him. We shall probably never know:)

PS In future it would make more sense for everyone to have their own ipv6 address/subnet and have that tattooed somewhere discretely. Far more useful.

broadband Business

Easter is a coming

Broadband data usage revenues for ISPs affected by Bank Holidays

Easter is a coming and the goose is getting fat. Don’t know why I said that. I’m not aware that goose is a fowl traditionally served¹ at Easter. Very rarely served at all in our house anyway because you don’t get much meat on one and there are six of us when the full team is assembled. Also it’s a bit of a faff cooking a goose although the goose fat by product is very useful for doing roast potatoes on subsequent Sundays (we rarely have roast potatoes on any other day).

In the service provision game holidays such as Easter are a real nuisance, especially if you are in B2B. Monthly revenues are directly related to the number of days in a month so a month where two days are wiped out by bank holidays and the high likelihood that people use annual leave to take the rest of the week off, revenues are normally down a little.

This is more relevant to services that are billed on a usage basis – fixed and mobile calls. Broadband tends to be a flat rate bundle although towards the end of a month when users are hitting their limits they can “break out” of their bundle and thus incur juicy excess data charges. Same is true for mobile bandwidth and minutes.

I’m particularly paranoid about mobile data as excess charges can be quite steep. It would be interesting to see how much data was used on my mam and dad’s broadband last week with 6 additional heavy users compared with the light surfing the line is normally exposed to. At least they are on an unlimited package (for £30). I’d guess that ordinarily Manx Telecom come out ahead on that one.

Had a go at fixing dad’s router whilst I was there. WiFi connectivity is a bit dodgy. Did a firmware upgrade and tried a couple or three different channels. Concluded the wifi card was on its way out so called Manx Telecom and dad is going to go into their shop in the week to get a new one. Will have to sign up for another 18 months but he ain’t going anywhere and doesn’t need the upgrade to FTTC for an extra six quid.

So the Communications Service Provider goose does not get fat at Easter although funnily enough not as not so fat as at Christmas which is when it is traditionally served.

PS I didn’t have a pic of a goose to hand so I’ve used a rib of beef instead 🙂

¹ Don’t forget that whilst revenge is a dish best served cold this is not the case for goose which should be hot with some nice stuffing and gravy.

Tags bundle, charges, excess

Business voip voip hardware

Cisco SPA303 phone at @harbour_lights < the photographic evidence

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 14 April, 2014
1 Comment on Cisco SPA303 phone at @harbour_lights < the photographic evidence

As a wrap up the the name the IP phone competition here is the photographic evidence – taken on Sunday morning before leaving the Isle of Man for the mainland.

Also a hot chocolate as served up at the @harbour_lights – spot on I say.

End User gadgets

IoM Ferry WiFi – the return journey

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 13 April, 2014
1 Comment on IoM Ferry WiFi – the return journey

Sat in the lounge on the IoM ferry Manannan. Using the free WiFi. In fact 5 out of 6 of the family are using the free WiFi and I’m using my droid and the Chromebook so that’s 6 devices. Most of us are listening to TalkSport – Liverpool v Man City. Crucial top of the table clash, must win game, the lads are up for it, etc etc etc

Just done a speedtest. 214ms ping to a Manx Telecom server in Douglas and about 150k down. Not surprising. The Davies family is probably single handedly using up all the connectivity. Looking around there aren’t that many people in the lounge and I can’t actually see anyone else using tinternet.

A bit later… the radio is buffering and I can’t seem to upload a photo to pixlr for editing. More people are settling into their gadgets, using up my bandwidth. Don’t they realise it’s making the experience pants for the rest of us. Selfish b$%^&*)$.

Outside the gale force 5 veering 6 is blowing white tops on the waves and it is a sunny afternoon on the high seas. The game is getting exciting – two all after Liverpool went two nil up early on. “The score is deliciously poised”, to quote one of the commentators.

The one thing the advent of gadgets has brought is easier travel. Everyone is quiet. It can be the same in the car – they all just hang off the MiFi (tx EE).

The boat is beginning to rock. It’s that “veering gale force 6”. I don’t typically get seasick though Kid3 does. They have all taken pills.

Liverpool have scored again. The family are Liverpool fans although tbh I’m Lincoln City (“till I die”) I’m happy to lend my voice to support the reds.

It’s a good job WordPress works offline on the Chromebook. Everything keeps buffering. You will have to wait until we get ashore for me to edit and post with a photo. Mind you the photo is of the speedtest and the conversation has moved on since then. Maybe I’ll stick up a panoramic view of the ship leaving harbour instead. Far more scenic¹.

A Vonage ad appears on the TV on the wall in front of me.

That’s it. Game over. Liverpool 3 Man City 2. We go 7 points clear of Man City who have played 2 fewer games and 5 points clear of Chelski who have 1 game in hand.

I may have to introduce a weekend sports section on the blog to supplement the travel.

Walk on, walk on with hope in your hearts…

Read the fabulous outbound ferry WiFi rambling here.

PS Handy tip when catching IoM ferry: always pay to take a trailer with the car. They wave you on to a spot at the front of the car deck so that you are one of the first off the boat.

PPS post completed using EE4G in the River Mersey

¹ Top panorama is Douglas harbour & bottom one is view as the ship leaves the Isle of Man

End User fun stuff

4 blades or 5 – the official verdict on which razor is best #wilkinson #comparison

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 13 April, 2014
1 Comment on 4 blades or 5 – the official verdict on which razor is best #wilkinson #comparison

This week I’ve been on holiday in the Isle of Man and have not shaved with a view to testing whether 4 or 5 blades are best for shaving. In theory I guess the 5 blades should give a better shave but there is also an argument that the fifth bade may be redundant.

The sequence of photos takes you though it. I order of appearance:

1The tools – including the King of Shaves shaving gel. Best in the game in my experience. 2 Close up of the razor heads. 3 Nivea aftershave – don’t normally use the stuff but thought I would for this test. 4 Before the shave. 5 Lathgered up. 6 the 5 blade result. 7 Half way through. 8 The finished job. 9 The 4 blade shave.

The result is buried amongst the photos. Manipulating photos in WordPress isn’t easy and the text is where the text is:)
king of shaves

the blades

The result: Mrs Davies Senior thinks the 4 blade was smoothest. The current Mrs Davies preferred the 5 blader.

I think I might marginally prefer the feel of the 5 blader when shaving but tbh there isn’t much in it and if the 5 blades are significantly more expensive than the 4 then it’s a non starter.

Voila…

Business ecommerce obsolescence

Windows XP ATM failure

There’s a Post Office down the road from my mam and dad’s place with a Barclays ATM. Yesterday I strode up to said ATM with a view to extracting some cash. Totally legally of course.

Imagine my surprise when I was confronted with a screen showing what appeared to be Windows XP booting up. Wow I thought and reached for the ~~gun in my holster~~ phone in my pocket to capture the moment in pixels. I was too slow. I’d never have made a good cowboy.

By the time I had unlocked the phone and fired up the camera (checked the film, taken a light reading, adjusted the focus etc) all I got was a curt apology stating that the cashpoint machine was currently dysfunctional and would I mind awfully trying the one at the Isle of Man Bank down the road.

Disappointed I turned my back on the machine and walked dejectedly towards the IoM bank. I thought that might have been a scoop. “XP brings down global banking system”. Wasn’t going to be the same without the photographic evidence.

I parked the thought whilst we spent the afternoon enjoying the delights of Onchan Park on its opening day of the season. Crazy golf at its best. The pitch and put and the bowling were closed due to waterlogged greens but that didn’t spoil our fun.

This morning my thoughts returned to the global banking crisis but research suggests that nothing untoward had happened. No doom laden headlines. Shock horror probe. Must have been a local issue.

I did find a few timely articles discussing the fact that all the world’s ATMs appear to run on XP. Speculation as to whether this was a ticking time bomb together with quotes from Microsoft suggesting that a move to Windows 8.1 would be very sensible from a security perspective. No news at all really.

One does wonder what the next generation of ATM o/s will be. Microsoft doesn’t exactly feel right but there again it would probably be easiest from a backwards compatibility perspective. I’m not that interested. It’s Sunday morning and I’m typing this post with my thumb on my droid. There is bacon to be cooked.

Easy like Sunday morning…

Tags ATM, bank, Microsoft, problem, windows, xp

End User travel

Rod and chains and fishing boats

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 12 April, 2014
No Comments on Rod and chains and fishing boats

Other travel posts from the Isle of Man:

The empty sea
Chandlery
Signs of Danger

Back in the office Tuesday ish in case anyone’s wondering.

End User travel

Peel Hill

It’s worth the 501 foot climb to the top of Peel Hill. From there you can see pretty much the full length of the Isle of Man. Out across the sea can be seen Scotland to the North and the Mountains of Mourne to the West.

When I was a kid in one field on the side of the hill you could see a large 3 legs on Man planted in clover by Italian prisoners of war during their WW2 internment. It’s sadly not there any more.

On this occasion someone had left a bunch of yellow roses at Corrin’s Folly at the top of the hill. Made me wonder what was the story behind it. Will probably never find out.

501 ft might not sound that much to the expert hill climber (eg Snowdon is 3,500ft or so) but you still need to take care and take the right gear. The weather can blow in from the sea at very short notice. On our way up yesterday we encountered a couple going in the other direction. He wore sensible walking boots and she a flimsy pair of sandals. Probably looked a lot nicer in them than in boots!!!

They looked as if they had come from Glen Maye which is a few miles further along the coastal path. This trip is was easy to persuade the family to come on the walk. The last time we did it the kids were younger and far less enthusiastic.

Having got them to the top I decided we might as well carry on for a bit as it was mostly on the flat or even downhill. It’s a wonderfully scenic coastal path although if it does skirt dodgily close to the cliff edge from time to time. We found ourselves once or twice climbing into a field to find safer ground. Were those cows or bulls in there…

Eventually coming down to the beach (pic right) in Glen Maye we realised how far we had walked and were forced to take shelter in the pub at the top of the glen. My dad had to come and pick us up in the car. Close timing as he had been about to crack open a beer.

The video below was taken on this trip. It’s the waterfall in Glen Maye. V scenic and a v relaxing place to take a stroll.

Other travel posts from the Isle of Man:

The empty sea
Chandlery
Signs of Danger

End User travel

The dredger – latest in the weekend series of interesting nautical posts

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 12 April, 2014
No Comments on The dredger – latest in the weekend series of interesting nautical posts

Sometimes people have to be told what is good for them. You have to get your opinions from somewhere. That’s why they have leader columns in newspapers – to present ideas for you to mull over and chew and either spit out or swallow.

This is why it is good to be able to dip into the weekend section of this blog and be presented with subject matter that has been pre approved as being interesting.

In this case it is the dredging operation being carried out at Peel Marina. The post contains two videos shot live on location in the Isle of Man. The first is of the dredger scooping up silt from the marina “floor”¹. I didn’t know that’s what a dredger looked like. In this case it is just a big digger. I’d always assumed it was something dragged along the sea bed scooping up large quantities of gunge and depositing it via a chute into a waiting barge. Maybe there are different sorts of dredgers.

The second video, at the end of the post, shows the bridge across the river at the entrance to the marina swinging open to allow a couple of boats through. The boats are very colourful. I do somewhere have a video showing them lifting the bridge into place when it was first installed. If I come across it you will be the first to see it:)

In between the videos you are presented with some pics out of a sequence showing the muck being emptied into the barge. Note the glorious weather. Why holiday anywhere else?

Look out for other interesting weekend posts on trefor.net.

Chandlery

Some shops have magnetic properties. They are able to draw you in to extract the cash from your wallet. As if there is someone from a Harry Potter book pointing a wand at you and sucking out money. Almost certainly one of the Dark Lord’s sidekicks. B4$^4£). Earn yer own money.

A ship’s chandlery is one such shop. Very fortunately I don’t own a boat¹. So whilst I can’t pass a chandlery without feeling it’s hypnotic lure once inside all I can do is gaze jealously at the arrays of cleats, hooks, pulleys, blocks, ropes (of all sizes) and other useful artefacts of a nautical nature realising that the purchase of any one item would be totally unjustifiable.

I don’t think Mrs Davies would appreciate me coming home with some useful links of chain saying I thought it would look good on the mantelpiece. I will one day but I need to have a garden shed to keep this kind of stuff, where it will be appreciated. A classic yellow souwester would look just right hanging on the back of the shed door innit? Don’t know if they still do those. Will have to nip back and check…

This particular emporium, purveyor of useful seagoing supplies, sells mainly to the fishing industry – there are 20 vessels working out of Peel, harvesting crabs, queenies and scallops. You never know when that information is going to be handy in a pub quiz. I found that out from the bloke behind the counter yesterday. To get the most out of a visit to a ships chandlery you have to chat to the bloke behind the counter. What’s selling well this season? Is the catch up or down on last year? All good stuff:)

Anyway enjoy the pics. Splice the mainbrace…

¹ Every time we come to the Isle of Man I’m tempted and start looking at online yacht sales sites.

End User food and drink google

Collaboration using Google Docs “simplifies” ordering of takeaway curry

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 11 April, 2014
2 Comments on Collaboration using Google Docs “simplifies” ordering of takeaway curry

Last night we decided that tonight, Friday night, would be curry night. The only problem is that not everyone here likes Indian. Some prefer Chinese. Actually not a problem. The Chinese and Indian restaurants are next to each other on the street of a ~~thousand~~ three restaurants (the other one is a greasy spoon). People can order their preferred ethnic takeaway and I’ll pick both lots up near simultaneously. Simples.

What’s more we can mix and match. You’d prefer a Chinese starter and Indian main? Sure, gofrit.

Now then the only problem here is that juggling menu options starts to get complicated. It’s all very well writing it all down on a piece of paper but with so many possible combinations of nosh people keep changing their minds.

The solution? A shared Google Doc. Everyone has a gmail account or so it transpires. Even non google domains were resolved to a gmail address when an invite was sent. After dinner last night everyone sat round with their laptops editing the Google Doc – six persons at the same time (I did mam and dad’s).

This was pretty cool. ~~You can check out the creativity of the end result here.~~ I was going to share the doc publicly but the process of securing permission from 4 offspring was going to be too onerous and almost certainly cost me more than a curry so I haven’t bothered. A little interpretation is necessary as may be seen from the header photo and not a little simplification but it worked and there can be no quibbling over who ordered what.

A couple of links were included in the doc: The Poppadom Song and a hippo showing the after effects (presumably) of eating a curry.

Collaboration using Google Docs – not just for business 🙂

End User google

Adsense logic on trefor.net

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 11 April, 2014
7 Comments on Adsense logic on trefor.net

Be interested to hear what ads people see in the sidebar adsense box. Since installing it I’ve only ever seen BT infinity except once this morning on my mobile where I say some “ever taken out a bank loan” ad – I assume it was PPI related.

Normally I associate google ads with things I’ve been searching for myself but in this case I’m wondering whether the ads are based on the content of the site. There is a lot of broadband content and quite a number of posts where I slag off PPI phone calls.

What do you guys see?

End User travel

The empty sea

Saw someone on the beach yesterday. Was a bit of a surprise because it isn’t exactly high season in the Isle of Man. We have grown used to finding signs saying “Opening 12th April”. We are off back to the mainland on 13th so that’s a lot of things we will have to cram in on our last day. School holidays don’t start here until next week.

I took a look online for potential visitor attractions. I note that there are three films on at the cinema in Douglas and Peel has a Pilates class running on Friday. Seven quid. The local pool is closed this afternoon for schools swimming lessons.

The upshot is there is nobody around except for a few pensioners whiling away their days and one or two kids over from the UK staying with grandparents (ditto us).

There is bingo on Friday night but by popular demand we are off to the Royal India, one of the world’s great curry houses which happens to be just around the corner from where my ma and pa live. Handy that.

We still have fishing to do and a walk up Peel Hill which holds spectacular views for those who have made the effort. We are saving those activities for tomorrow when the weather is supposed to be at its best.

The header photo is a picture of no boats out on the sea. If you want boats you will have to use your imagination because here they are all safely tucked up in harbour. We did see a lone kayak yesterday but it was too far out to photograph. I could only see it through my binoculars. Bit dodgy I thought, being that far out in a kayak on your todd.

This morning we are off to the Sound to see the Calf of Man and thereafter for lunch at the caff at the far end of the beach in Port Erin. It’s a goodun.

Catch ya later.

PS I’m still alive (see previous post)

End User travel

Signs of Danger or Dangers Signs – latest in holiday series where Tref reports having a good time

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 10 April, 2014
No Comments on Signs of Danger or Dangers Signs – latest in holiday series where Tref reports having a good time

Felt a bit of a rebel taking this photo. It’s a sign on Peel breakwater listing dangers, prohibited activities and precautions that must be taken when passing the spot.

I was taking the pic with my Samsung Galaxy S4 and am clearly not wearing a hard hat. Hadn’t noticed that my eyes were shut when the shot was taken which at a stretch could be interpreted either as me being in denial about the dangers that lay ahead or pretending not to see the sign.

For completeness I should also mention that I wasn’t wearing high visibility clothing (unless the white legs exposed by a pair of shorts counts for high viz) , am not aware of being authorised but can reassure you that I was not smoking.

You will have to wait to see whether I post again after this to find out if I survived. Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye. Fingers crossed…

Heartbleed – a pain in the proverbial

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 10 April, 2014
4 Comments on Heartbleed – a pain in the proverbial

Big fuss doing the rounds over the Heartbleed bug. Google it. Every man and his dog¹ is saying it is really bad and offering advice which basically says change your passwords oh and btw it might not make sense to change it yet because your specific service might not have patched their SSL.

Now this is the problem. I have 75 sets of credentials for accessing online services. Each one has a complex and unique password. It’s going to take hours to change them all.

A few are more important than others, Google and banking for example. I checked Lloyds Bank. There are no notifications on their website. No advice. No words of comfort saying “don’t worry Tref you are ok son”. Now I can’t believe that a bank like Lloyds with presumably a huge security team hasn’t got it covered.

I checked them using LastPass and got the message “A Server header was not reported, you should assume this site could be vulnerable.” Now this may be because the site is vulnerable or it may be that Lloyds has its website nailed down so that services such as LastPass can’t ping it for information. Not being an expert in this field I don’t know.

Maybe I don’t need to worry about it anyway. Lloyds uses 2 factor authentication. Is that affected? Hmm. No idea.

I read about tech so picked up the Heartbleed story. My dad doesn’t read this stuff. He is 80. He reads the sports pages, the political news and, oh I don’t know, headlines from 1956. Anything really but not news about Heartbleed. Yeeeeoooooooowwwwnggg – right over his head. He probably doesn’t even know most passwords he has created. Probably a majority of the population will be in the same boat.

A lot of people out there will be oblivious to Heartbleed, oblivious to whether their services are affected and oblivious as to whether they need to do anything about it. What’s to do?

I’d envisage each of the 75 services I have an username and password with will be wanting to send me an email advising me of a course of action. Not received one yet…

ip phone competition @harbour_lights

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 9 April, 2014
7 Comments on ip phone competition @harbour_lights

This picture was taken at the @harbour_lights caff on the prom in Peel IoM. It shows a traditional seaside cafe but with a twist. The @harbour_lights, as regular followers of holiday blog posts will know, has free wifi and a Twitter account. It also has an IP phone which impressed me greatly.

There is a prize of a pot of tea for two at the Harbour Lights Cafe for the first person to tell me the brand of the phone and where it is in the picture. Clicking on the image gets you a full size version which should help.

Poignant phonebox photo

There is something about a photo of a phonebox taken using a mobile phone camera. It’s almost gloating. An icon of the past captured by the technology that rendered it obsolete. There should be an air of dereliction about the picture. Sadness. There isn’t. I’m smiling though the photo is not helped by the fact that it’s a cloudy day.

I may have asked this one before but it’s worth asking again: when did you last use a phonebox?

Other posts containing images of phoneboxes:

HTC Desire HD review
What to do about automated spam calls to mobile
Non internet use > neo-monsaticism