trefor.net - Page 24 of 92 - Insider comments from the world of internet communications

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

Bad Stuff End User H/W

A peck? Nay, a bushel!

Yesterday in Apocalypse Then, I wrote that having shifted from Mac to Windows upon starting a technical writing gig with TEA (Texas Education Agency) in 1993 that for the next fifteen years I paid “…nary a thought…to Apple and their Mac OS whatever-number.” Well, memory is a cagey, amorphous, and deceitful beast — one that tends to spit out incongruent detail at just the moment when you think you have recollection locked down — because the truth is that I did have one more go-round with Cupertino-designed computers before the big shun took hold.

I decided not long before leaving the U.S. to spend 1994 in Europe that I would use my Apple connections to get a good deal on a PowerBook 165 that I could take along. How novel it would be, I thought, to hostel-hop Europe with a laptop computer in my backpack! I could use it to keep a journal! I’d send emails (CompuServe — I was and forever will remain 72124,3441 — supposedly had modem access phone numbers everywhere)!

The longstoryshort? During the period I spent in the U.K. working for London Underground Limited at the start of my adventure I came to realize the ridiculous reality of moving about with a 6.8 lbs. computer in my pack. Sixteen countries, no less than 3 electrical outlet interfaces to consider, probably a like number of modular connector interfaces, and for what? So I could self-satsifying type instead of write, all while cavalierly pinning a “Stupid Guy with Expensive Toys for the Taking” target on my good self?

Before leaving the U.K. to begin the backpacking half of my year in Europe I offloaded the PowerBook 165 on a London University student for an amount that translated to nearly twice what I originally paid (and the kid still made out like a bandit, as the same system was selling new in the U.K. for a good deal more). Generous guy in other ways, too, as he clued me into Iain M. Banks’s Consider Phlebus. Some things just work out.

Bad Stuff End User fun stuff Mobile ofcom Regs scams

An Open Letter to Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE

Post author By Peter Farmer
Post date Friday, 18 April, 2014
2 Comments on An Open Letter to Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE

Hi Olaf.

I hope you don’t mind the informal start to my letter as, after all, your company’s recent one to me regarding an increase in the price for my package from EE was as equally informal (I’ve popped a copy of it in the gallery below, though I’m sure you already know all about it).

Before I start, I will admit that you have a contractual basis from which to make the change detailed in the letter, and can mount a robust (albeit one open to challenge) argument about regulatory compliance. That isn’t quite the point, though.

First, I’d like to draw your particular attention to the line that says “RPI (Retail Price Index) is a measure of inflation, which directly affects the cost to run our service.”

Interesting. And I’d like to point out a few things to you which would suggest that you are mistaken.

RPI, as a measure of inflation, is now largely discredited. Anyone in the know, including your sector’s regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), is migrating to the use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Have a look at Ofcom’s discussion in paragraph 3.155 onwards of the Wholesale Local Access Review.
Some debate exists on whether wages over the last 12 months have tracked CPI (which is lower than RPI, by the way); it somewhat depends on which decile you find yourself in. Considering this data from the BBC, I suspect you and your executive are OK but a substantial number of EE staff may not be. Unless, of course, you gave them all a CPI-busting wage increase of the RPI figure. Did you?
A substantial part of your business is your mobile phone customers calling landlines: 01 and 02 numbers. As a result of a European Union Recommendation some time ago, Ofcom lowered the termination rates on 1st January 2014 for these calls by around RPI (this review was started before the Office of National Statistics drove the final nail into the RPI coffin) minus 87% — a net 84% reduction in that cost to your business. Funny, but I don’t recall getting a reduction in my line rental or other charges, so I assume you’ve kept this windfall, yes? See Table 1.1 of the Final Statement in the 2013 Wholesale Narrowband Market Review for information.
The Treasury estimated that the 4G spectrum auction would raise around £3.5bn. In reality, it raised £2.34bn, so there’s a £1.1bn saving there for the mobile industry against a reasonable market expectation; thus, rationally-speaking, EE must have forward-priced its 4G services expecting to outlay a market value for spectrum, resulting in further savings on your part. Is this true?

I am sure you can see at this point why I have a problem believing you when you say that RPI (or CPI) has had a direct affect on your entire business; unless in spite of what I have cited above there is a cost that has risen so disproportionately high that it means the average cost increase is the same as the RPI? What could that cost be…perhaps Kevin Bacon’s fees?

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.

Not Pink, Not Strong, Not Delicious

Post author By Marcos Campos
Post date Thursday, 17 April, 2014
No Comments on Not Pink, Not Strong, Not Delicious

It’s been 3 days. I haven’t fallen in love yet. I don’t think it’s going to happen. No, I am not falling in love with this new phone. I thought this would be the one.

A female college roommate once told me, “Men learn to like the women they love, whereas women learn to love the men they like.” The point being that men tend to fall in love first…and fast. They know within moments. I’m a man, so I know this to be true. I will never develop feelings for the technology in my hand.

I am in no danger of turning into the Joaquin Phoenix character in “Her”. I already know that unlike Theodore Twombly I will at no point get sexual gratification from my new device, not even if I suddenly discover a Scarlett Johansson voiceover app.

At noon the text came: “Happy Hour?”

My friend Amanda. She just started a job at a hip little engineering firm in Austin that is doing some kind of data analysis on franchise business data. She held her previous job — the one she took straight out of college — for 16 years prior, and for that she used to take a considerable amount of ribbing.

I decide to drop in at Amanda’s new office, which is in an old house downtown where 60-year-old dilapidated houses rent for $300 per square foot. It’s in a part of hip-Austin that is only slightly indistinguishable from dilapidated Austin.

The first thing I see on walking into the living room (the lobby) is a huge monitor that serves as a metrics dashboard of some sort, displaying scrum and defect statistics. The display changes to show another app, one that offers a graph of beer consumption in the office over the last month, complete with a projection of when the beer will run out. The beer of reference is housed in an antique refrigerator on the other side of the living room…. er, welcome area that has been retro-fitted with a spigot that serves to turn the entire thing into a huge keg. First thought? This is a LOT more comfortable than my “office” in the corporate cube farm.

Amanda appears, and soon we are driving the 12 blocks to Arro, a trendy little French restaurant I’ve wanted to try. We sit at the bar, and I begin the conversation, saying “Thanks, I wanted your advice – actually your reassurance about something.” I then proceed to tell Amanda about my having given notice at work, and how I’m unsure about whether to take a leave of absence or just quit. We also talk about her new job, and how refreshing she is finding it to work with smart people who don’t get hung up on egos, and who just focus on the solution.

agricultural End User

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.

Apocalypse Then

I will start with a question, and feel free to answer simply by raising your hand. Have any of you out there who have read this far ever felt a near-overwhelming bloodlust with regard to a PC, wanting to hoist it over your head and smash it at your feet (or, even better, on the pavement or sidewalk or other surface of sufficient unforgivingness many stories below an open window)? Or harbored visions of a cataclysmic reckoning descending upon the good folks at Microsoft who develop, market, and directly financially benefit from the Windows operating systems? Ever fantasize about the painful and public (oh-so-public) limb-from-limb rending of someone somewhere who in some way had nth degree of responsibilty for your facing the Blue Screen of Death?

OK. Hands down. Really, I was just asking rhetorical questions. Enthusiasm is always nice, though. And appreciated.

PCs running some flavor or other of Windows. Man. I distinctly recall entering that world back in 1993, and begrudgingly doing so…for money.

As a first-year technical writer just starting to dry off the space behind my ears, at the time I was working my first post-entry-level contract for Apple Sales and Support in Austin, working solo to document the company’s PowerBook Problem Resolution Process (really, it was called that)…for $10 an hour. I had visions — Heck, I had plans! — to save up enough dosh to take the following year off to live/work/travel in Europe, and yet in June of that year I was working a gig that was just managing to cover rent and gas. But it was Apple! PowerBook-era Apple! At-the-precipice-of-cratering Apple, but still Apple! And I felt comfortable and warm and safe in the Mac OS and that clanky Claris software (MacWrite! MacDraw!). For $10 an hour.

Around that time a programmer type with whom I had some acquaintance (and who really liked my cooking) told me that he could help me latch on at the Texas Education Agency for a great deal more than I was making at Apple. He didn’t quote numbers, but he was sure the rate would be at least double the amount of pennies I was yanking down at Apple. And the TEA offices were just down the street from my my digs at the time (small unshared detail up to this point: Apple’s Austin campus was out in the sticks), too. Government contract! Double the money! Wicked-short commute! One caveat, though…I would have to work in…Windows.

Windows-XP-Exception-1024x574

And so I instigated a personal sea change in my day-to-day. For a 150% income bump my cyber soul was bought and paid for. From The Beatles to the ‘Stones. And that is the way it was for the next 15 years, through the year I did end up spending in Europe (London Underground Limited, Safety Directorate, in 1994…a Windows shop), through career stints at Dell and IBM, the first Internet bubble, and the first 7 years of my freelance career. Windows this, Windows that, nothing but Windows (OK, a little Unix on the side, but that was just for fun and profit), and nary a thought paid to Apple and their Mac OS whatever-number. Was I “happy” in the Windows world? Did it matter? Being adept at Windows was essential for my work…necessary to ensure my income. Lucrative, baby!

broadband Business

Future Broadband Planning Requirements

Post author By Lindsey Annison
Post date Thursday, 17 April, 2014
12 Comments on Future Broadband Planning Requirements

It seems to be one of those weeks where UK broadband stories are coming thick and fast. Not only that, but more and more people are pitching in with considered opinions on stories and, in fact, the comments are beginning to make for far more valuable reading than the original articles! And perhaps that could be the case here too. 😉

I want to follow up today on two stories that have broken this week on new build and broadband.

The first story was on ThinkBroadband, regarding a new build housing estate in West Yorkshire and broadband availability for the new homeowners in Calderdale. ThinkBroadband believes that this new estate will have a reasonably good chance of achieving that oh-so-elusive “superfast” connectivity from cab 106 — approx 93% chance of greater than 30Mbps. (Bear in mind that this is only in reference to download, so anyone looking for a reasonable upload should hold their horses before buying!)

The ThinkBroadband article makes the point that though this is not a rural cab it has been funded by BDUK, which if you recall was for the Final Third and rural properties, so questions probably ought to be asked as to why taxpayer money is being used to fund what should have fallen into BT’s commercial rollout in Halifax.

Oh look, in the comments! Questions *are* being asked!

John Popham notes:

This is all good news for the people who live in this area, but….. this is a relatively new housing development built well beyond the point when most of society realised that broadband was an essential component of life. And now, the taxpayer is having to subsidise their connections. This does not make any sense at all.

Can it be that difficult to put planning conditions into new developments that they must make provision for fibre-to-the-premises connections? From the developers’ viewpoint it would help the properties to sell.

Popham makes an extremely valid point that should be raised over and over again. Why have planning agencies, housing developers, and the government not yet cottoned on to the importance of building homes that are broadband enabled? Isn’t that like building houses that from the moment the architect gets involved are not legislated to be environmentally friendly, cheaper to heat, with a reduced carbon footprint and so on? Ah….no, we have not yet mastered that either.

So whereby countries other than the UK can 3D print a whole house out of recycled materials for less than £1500 in a couple of hours, we have not yet quite gotten around to enforcing environmental standards on new build, let alone tech requirements?

Tags broadband, Butchers Arms, community pub, Crosby Ravensworth, Cumbria, FTTH, housing, new build, planning authorities, village pump, West Yorkshire

Business servers

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.

Memorable Gigabit Broadband Day

Post author By Lindsey Annison
Post date Wednesday, 16 April, 2014
6 Comments on Memorable Gigabit Broadband Day

Gigabit broadband makes for memorable day

What with all the kerfuffle over poor broadband in the UK (read: BDUK, BT’s superfarce rollout…and possibly superfalse advertising, too?), it was quite nice to wake up yesterday to good news from the fibre broadband world. There have been far too few of these days over the years, as in actuality the believed-to-be good news is normally followed by reneging, backward shuffling, failure to deliver, etc. I am more than just cautiously hopeful this time, though.

Interestingly, towards the end of a week of TechQT shows on the broadband subject last week (which culminated on Friday eve with Prof Peter Cochrane), after the Thursday show (the one with our international colleagues) I raised a question on Twitter regarding investment:

Despite the missing hyphen, I am sure you get the drift. Not that I am by nature an impatient person (I am!), but after 18 years of battling for decent, affordable, ubiquitous (preferably full-fat fibre and FiWi) broadband for all across Britain, sometimes I find it all very frustrating. Investors as a whole seem to believe the hype that Broadband Britain actually exists, or at least that it will one day soon(ish), hence job done. Clearly, though, the job is not done and — much to Britain’s detriment — nothing close to what is required on a national basis yet exists.

Obviously, communities have been trying to resolve the gigabit broadband issue for quite some time, and there are start-ups that are rolling their sleeves up too (e.g., Gigaclear, Hyperoptic). It seems, though, that large corporations have also become bored of waiting for gigabit Britain to occur. Go York. (The last time I spoke to CityFibre it was with regard to using their York Core to reach outside York to offer community project backhaul in the rural areas, so perhaps someone who lives in North Yorkshire should now pick that discussion back up?) Also, there are rumours that Virgin is on the verge of announcing a rural expansion of its network as well. All of this should, of course, please the bods in Westminster and Whitehall no end, as they are always ranting on about how vital competition in Telecoms is, although in reality their support for such an end has been difficult to clarify.

End User gadgets H/W wearable

Google Can Kiss My Glass

The netwaves have been humming for about a week with the news that Google would finally open up their Glass Explorer Program to the general public, albiet for one day only — today, 15-April — and only for the suckers…er, buying public who can claim to be a “US resident” (though not in a legal sense as a US-bound means of payment — credit card, PayPal account, or a friend with such willing to front the dough — and a US mailing address that can receive a package likely has what it takes to get in). Now “open up” may be something of a misnomer, as just a cursory glance at the fine print of it all reveals that Google is “opening up some spots” and that “spots are limited”, even if the email I received this past Saturday from the company served up as its Subject: Heads Up — You Can Purchase Glass on Tuesday.

The Glass Explorer bundle’s WTF! $1500 + tax^* pricetag will no doubt go somewhat far in keeping out the mere curiosity seeker, but those with a little bit of pocket who still feel as though they are on the outside of Google Glass looking in no doubt felt the tingle (not to mention the heart-flutter) when the How To Get One link went live at 9:00AM EST today. I know I…didn’t.

The hype machine began cranking over Google Glass about a year ago — Believe it! — and I remember well how quickly it swept its way into every corner of the Internet…

What is it?…this is what it is…this is what it does…I caught that Glass demo video and I won’t feel whole again until I have direct-walk-around-literally-in-my-face access to the Internet…I know someone who has it…a friend of mine let me wear theirs…that article on Google Glass knocking down the last vestiges of privacy rattled me but good…can you imagine being in a public restroom and having someone wearing Google Glass walk in?…the world will never be the same!

…Google Glass got the antennae of the common plugged-into-Internet human vibrating like few tech-y devices before (portable CD players back in the late 80s come to mind, and — of course — the first iPhone), and not surprisingly when it did start to make its way into the wild the posturing began. Social media profile pictures changed, to best illustrate the new Stars-upon-Thars status of those lucky few with an ‘in’ at Google good enough to…well, get them in, and conversations with the blessed that didn’t contain numerous and constant references to the new on-face ticky-tack became as common as a truly great television program airing in prime time on a Saturday night. Google Glass. It was all the talk, it was all the rage, it was on the “Want” list of anyone and everyone able to spell ‘WWW’…

…and then it wasn’t.

Engineer ipv6

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.

End User gadgets H/W internet media Mobile mobile apps phones

Gaining Focus

As readers of last week’s Conscious Uncoupling already know, I am making moves to unhitch myself from my iPhone 4 of the past 3 years and start anew at some point in the near future with an Android KitKat device. And as I am always looking to put the latest tech into my hands when the time comes to upgrade (or as my Apple-inebriated friends would likely put it in this case, “mistakenly change”), I have been looking quite fervently at both the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S5, both of which have just recenlty seen release and both of which are racking up impressively high numbers with regard to NRP (Number of Reviews Published…my statistic, my acronym, and no amount of search engine pounding will turn it up).

Two weeks ago (week of 31-March) HTC brought their blitz of HTC One M8 promotion to a crescendo that rolled over and straight through the technologically inclined and/or curious, and which resulted in a quantity of review inches more than adequate enough to ensure informed options would set in time to counter the Samsung Galaxy S5 wave that followed last week (week of 7-April). Now, of course, I cannot and will not make such an important relationship decision without first establishing a level playing field upon which I can hinge it, so I have resolved to wait a few weeks…a couple of weeks…at least a week to let all of the new information foster (fester?) within.^*

So all of those reviews. Essentially, they boil down pretty straight across party lines (yes, that is a telephony joke…a groaner of a telephony joke but a telephony joke nonetheless).

HTC One M8
	Pros:	Gorgeous build and design (actually it is more accurate to go All-Caps on GORGEOUS, as this is the overwhelming first-notice feature cited in every one of the product reviews I have read or skimmed or found myself subjected to). The expected high level of display, speed, and functionality. GREAT speakers! “Motion Launch”, which allows the user to perform specific commands with the display off via tap, swipe, or gesture. Better than expected battery life (and a power-saving mode that can be configured to set energy amount parameters).
	Cons:	Lousy camera. Just awful. Won’t anyone say something nice about the camera? Or, at least, not be so enthusiastic in dinging it?

Samsung Galaxy S5
	Pros:	Waterproof! Yup, the Galaxy S5 is waterproof, up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter. Terrific screen, camera kudos all around, noticeably great battery life (and the battery can be swapped out as needed, too), storage expandability up to 128GB, health features (a heart rate monitor as part of the on-board hardware won’t keep me from drinking a single Cola-Cola or eating a single chip) significant reduction in the amount of Samsung TouchWiz bloatware from its S4 predecessor, speed and functionality to beat the band, and light.
	Cons:	Perhaps TOO light, as every reviewer critisizes the S5’s “cheap” feel (at least in comparison to the heavy and shiny smartphones in the arena, all of which suffer phone reception for their metal-enwrapped goodness), the fingerprint scanner is not as smooth as Apple’s Rolls-Royce-aspiring iPhone 5S, and though the TouchWiz bloatware is less than it was on the S4 it is still a proverbial fish-in-a-barrel target for criticism.

So pushing cost/plan out of the equation, I find I am leaning hard towards the Samsung Galaxy S5. I cannot say that I have spent much time wishing I could use my phone in the sea, pool, or shower (and I haven’t found my phone doing a toilet tumble since the days of the Nokia 3310), but what I can say is that I cannot imagine spending ANY time with a smartphone that is camera-lacking. The (at the time) industry-leading camera is what put me in my iPhone 4 back in 2011 to begin with, and as criteria go that function is even more of a decision-maker for me in 2014.

Get the picture?

^*Yes, there are tens of other KitKat-able phones that warrant consideration along with thes two new goliaths now stomping around, however I did lead with my propensity for grabbing up the latest tech and it doesn’t come any “latest” than the new flagship products from HTC and Samsung. Of course, the fact is that “With Great Popularity Comes Not Only Great Punditry But Great Amounts of Shared Opinion and Technical Insight.” (humblest apologies to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, both of whom are thankfully still with us as of this writing), so there is that, too.

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

fun stuff Weekend

Saturday Snapshot (12-April-2014)

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Sunday, 13 April, 2014
No Comments on Saturday Snapshot (12-April-2014)

All week long the focus for the coming Saturday has been easily described: “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”. The film was released in France on 2-April and circumstance and scheduling conspired to keep La Famille Kessel from taking it in over opening weekend, but that would be rectified on Saturday. No doubt, no question, no choice.

Woken this morning by Bella the Cat and the call to breakfast (again, “À Table!”), my first thought that didn’t involve body function was “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”! Hot coffee? Crave it, and not for the caffeine. Orange juice? Cold and sweet and slightly fizzy on my tongue (I mix it 1:1 with Quézac, or whatever other cold sparkling water is lurking in the fridge), every morning I revel in the marvelous contrast it offers to that other beverage. Some edible or another, depending on the day or location or mood or availability borne of desperation. Breakfast, yes, please…but let’s not forget “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, OK?

Just as I was breaking the surface into full consciousness My Missus says to me, “This morning we need to replace the broken lamp, and I want to go to that Indian furniture and accessories shop we walked into last month, to buy a birthday gift for my sister.”

But…yes, OK, but…but…”Captain America: The Winter Soldier”? Mind you, it is not yet 9h30 and we decided days ago that we would go to a late afternoon showing at a nearby cinema, but…but…”Captain America: The Winter Soldier”?

I polished off breakfast, helped my cups and plates and such into the dishwasher (which has needed replacing since Kevin Feige produced his first flick for Marvel Studios — that would be “Iron Man” — in 2008…and perhaps the subject of a future all-too-compelling “Saturday Snapshot” in this space?), splashed water on my face and over the part of my head that once housed my once-signature bushy brown locks, figured out the clothes and shoes thing, and declared myself ready to do what had to be done. Somewhere in Paris there was a cheap halogen lamp just waiting to be brought home, and Indian curios in the 11th Arrondissement to be picked over.

End User fun stuff gadgets mobile apps phones wearable

Cycle Gear

A long time ago I used to cycle everywhere; then I learned how to drive……. then I learned how to drink and how to hail (and afford) a taxi….. then I moved to the countryside with idiot drivers like me that didn’t really look out properly for cyclists….. then I moved to the Surrey / London border and the quack told me to stop abusing my joints.

But now, I have an all clear and the realisation that there is some epic cycling country around here. I write this, for example, after following National Cycle Route 4 pretty much from home to Tower Bridge this morning, through Richmond Park and substantially along the river (including past Craven Cottage, home of the mighty Fulham Football Club). I am now editing it a few days later after a 25 mile blast from home to Richmond Park to say hi to the deer.

Of course, being in telecoms means such a venture cannot be undertaken without some degree of geekist equipment. So, I have my bike, a Specialized Crosstrail. Hybrid, obviously, because (1) I don’t want to be associated with the LycraLouts that ride two abreast on main roads and (2) becasue there’s no way a roadbike can handle tow paths at speed.

There’s the Moon LED lights that charge from a microUSB socket, which is incredibly useful. They have a multitude of settings, which I cannot master despite them having only one button. Oh, and they’re bright, which I suppose is the main thing. There’s also the generic Chinese reverse engineered wireless speedometer, which is essential for knowing just how fast the idiot BMW driver that missed you with a nanometre clearance was going relative to you…. and, more importantly, how far it is to the pub for pie, chips and ale.

Which pretty much just leaves some form of mapping solution. And for that, I have two essential pieces of kit. The first is my iPhone; the second is something to put it in – for which I have this handle handlebar bag. It is importantly water resistent (to be fair it only gets mildly moist even in a monsoon downpoor). It’s large enough to hold a wallet and a battery pack (essential for mobile mapping, for reasons I have previously written about) and has a clear plastic cover on top and a pouch for your iPhone (apparently other devices are allegedly available). There’s also a neat slot for a headphone cable, though I for one would rather hear the idiot in the BMW coming than listen to my playlists.

Tags cycling

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.