It's not always like this

Ordered Sky Television towards the start of last week, in fact I ordered just about everything, Television, Phone & Broadband.  Due to a glitch on their website & had to order it over the phone.  There comes my first rant.  Their call center setup is such that if they ever need to transfer you to a different department, you’ll be cut off, happens every time.

After several phone calls I finally got through to someone who could deal with my problems (this was about my fourth call to them).  After an hour on the phone (or what seemed like it) all the packages I wanted were ordered & a date for installation agreed.

The installation day came & everything went well, impressed with the new box and had fun over the next few days learning about all it’s new features.  Then an email came through leading me to believe I’d been sold a package I hadn’t asked for, this was confirmed with yet another phone call which got me thinking that Sky’s call centers must be staffed by a bunch of incompetent idiots.

They say this unwanted package will be removed before the next billing cycle, I’m not so confident.

Tags: satellite, Sky, television

For various reasons, I’ve decided to move the websites I host on a Linux VPS from running on the Apache web server to Litespeed.  I’ve used Litespeed before & like it’s web based admin interface, makes it so much easier to see what’s going on.  The standard (free) version unfortunately only allows for five websites to be hosted, which would not cover the number of domains I have running on the VPS.  I’m going to have to lease a license for their Enterprise VPS version which costs $14 / month, this will require cost savings in other areas.

I also rent a hosted Exchange service, going to have to do some sums, but I think this will have to go.  My VPS is woefully underused, so I’ll just set up an email account on that & copy the emails over, I should also be able to give myself a lot more space than I’ve got with the hosted Exchange.

If all goes well, at the end of all this tinkering about, I’ll have an email service with a lot more storage, and a number of websites (still working, hopefully) running on Litespeed.

Wish me luck!!

Tags: Apache, Litespeed

I’ve recently found out the degree I was aiming for will cease to be before I finish my studies.  Finding another computing / technology degree has been difficult, since I wanted to keep the course choice I’d already made.  Further investigation though has revealed a course I never expected the Open University to offer, it’s widely available commercially and well respected in the industry, but costs more than I could afford at this time.  The course in question is T216 Cisco networking (CCNA).  After a quick & easy call to the OU, my previous two course choices were ditched in favour of this one, it means I’ve got to wait until January to start the course but it’ll be well worth it for the qualification I’ll be able to acheive from it.

Tags: CCNA, cisco, distance learning, Open University

Education is a wonderful thing, and when it comes at no cost to yourself it’s something you shouldn’t deny yourself.  I originally studied with the Open University more than twenty years ago, getting myself a pass in a first year technology foundation course.  Recent events have led me to re-evaluate the direction my life’s going in and back in February I started the process of getting myself registered for a couple of courses, due to start this coming October.

Sticking with what I know best, some sort of computing subjects were the order of the day, but one thing that was an absolute must to me was requirement that any courses I did led to a named degree rather than an open one.  It’s with this in mind that I chose T175 Networked Living and M150 Data, Computing and Information, both starting me on a path to a BSc in Computing and Systems Practice.

Funding was the next issue, money is available via the OU, but needs various application forms filled out and verification supplied.  This was my first real stumbling block, because not knowing anyone in the listed professions that the OU insisted had to verify my identity, I had to start phoning round to anyone I could think of who had the authority to verify my existence.

Enter stage left my local councillor.  I phoned her up explaining the situation, she seemed very amenable at first, agreeing to verify my identity.  Unfortunately she obviously never listened to a word I said (does anybody in local government) and withdrew her support.  After writing to her & explaining the situation yet again (I couldn’t have been clearer first time round) she finally agreed to go through with the verification.

Two weeks later & I’m fully registered, fully paid up, and waiting until October when everything starts happening.

Tags: distance learning, education, Open University

Recently I spent a few nights at the Youth Hostels Association’s Holland Park hostel in Kensington, London.  My reasons for choosing this hostel were mainly cost, it being cheaper than the YHA’s other London hostels.  I hadn’t booked, but being October I was fairly confident they’d have room for me.

Initial impression

The hostel was easy to find, being a moderate walk from Kensington High Street tube station & through Holland Park.  Having looked at the YHA website prior to my departure I wasn’t expecting a seperate building, only looking out for the older building shown on their site.  The reception staff were welcoming & before too long I was set for two nights in London.

Food

Holland Park has a cafe which offers hot & cold food.  The prices are reasonable and I should add that the hostel fee includes breakfast, there being a choice of traditional English fried breakfast to cereals etc.  The food, whilst being edible was not the best I’ve ever tasted, but for the price it’s reasonable.

Rooms

Holland Park is clearly showing its age in this area.  If you’re lucky you might be put in one of the bright airy rooms portrayed on their website.  I was placed in room 10, a room in the old building with 20 bunks and very little in the way of sunlight to brighten the place up.  As far as I could tell the was only one power point in the room which meant charging your cellphone up was a race to see who could get to the socket first.  The washing facilities comprised of showers & basins, it looked as if some remedial maintenance needed to be done in this area since half the showers were permanently on.  With just three showers and basins I wondered just how long the queue would be when these rooms were fully occupied.

Location

The location of this hostel can’t be faulted.  It’s a moderate walk to Kensington High Street tube, and from there the Science, Natural History and V&A museums are just a short ride away.  The tube also gives easy access to other parts of London.

Would I stay there again?  Probably, but I’d want to be put in a different room next time.

Tags: hostel, London, review, YHA

Recently I installed a content management system (CMS) called Drupal on my Linux VPS to create a website which I hope will one day be the front end to a business venture I’m planning.  Don’t want to say too much about that at the moment but one of the things I wanted to acheive early on was the placement of Google Analytics code at the foot of each page for tracking purposes.

I soon figured out how to create my own footer in Drupal but kept getting ’403 Forbidden’ errors when trying to save the footer with the Google Analytics code inside it.  It’s lucky then that I finally stumbled on Brian Stevenson’s website, which apart from having a link to a Drupal module he’d written also included a webcast showing how to install and set it up.

Good job Brian!!

Tags: Drupal, Google Analytics

Quite a busy week ahead, mostly medical

• Monday:  CT scan (maybe one day they’ll figure out what’s wrong with my legs / spine)
• Wednesday:  Dental checkup
• Thursday:  Appointment with physiotherapist (no idea what will happen there)
• Friday:  Funeral

Tags: CT scan, Diary, Medical

I’m still finding things to moan about concerning the bus service.  This time it’s aimed at those people who wait at bus stops with no intention of getting on the bus when it stops for them.  They know full well the bus is going to stop & just stand there like lemons until the bus driver realises his time has been wasted yet again & drives off.

If these idiots must wait near a bus stop can’t they stand a few yards away from the thing so the bus driver knows they’re not waiting for him?

Tags: bus, busses, rant

Among the many plugins I use on this WordPress based blog are TweetMe & RevCanonical.  The TweetMe plugin posts a message to my Twitter account whenever I post on this blog, adding a link back to the post.  Normally, the plugin uses an external URL shortening service to shorten the link back to the post.

Installing the RevCanonical plugin allows me to dispense with the external URL shortening service, & use a URL of my own.  I’ve since bought a nice short URL and set it up in the RevCanonical config.  Posting this will tell me if it’s all working right or has gone belly up!!

Tags: RevCanonical, TweetMe, URL shortening, Wordpress

Monopoly City Streets has been ‘live’ for a few hours now but almost immediately crashed under the load.  The site has been comprehensively swamped under the load & I’m surprised that a company like Google had not allowed for the extreme load they must have known their servers would be put under.

I can foresee all the most profitable places being sold by the time I can get on the site.

Tags: Google, Hasbro, Monopoly