Stall The Ball

As per http://www.stalltheball.com/index.php/2008/04/09/children-s-games-in-the-irish-hosting-in

things have now escalated at http://www.mneylon.com/blog/archives/2008/04/09/infamous-at-last/index.html

The final comment from a customer or prospective client says it all really

Wow. From someone who relies on some (or all) of you to keep mine and my client's sites up-and-running, this all makes for some pretty grim reading.

Nokia’s wildly anticipated “Tube” phone has been leaked onto the internet. It has been dubbed the iPhone killer.

Measuring in roughly the same size as the N73 it features a full size screen, Nokia’s “Tactility Feedback” essentially two mall piezos under the screen that make the screen feel like it’s been clicked the same as a keyboard key.

It has Quad Band as well as Bluetooth, GPRS, EDGE, UTMS, HSDPA and WLAN.

The camera is supposedly better than the iPhone but not quite up to top of the range Nokia phone cameras.

The Nokia Tube will feature direct video uploading and support for Java, both things that the current iPhone does not offer.

The “Tube” is expected to be released in Q1 2009.

Running the Symbian OS expect a ready made list of applications to be available shortly after it’s release.

Shown in a slide at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference in Redwood City, California., the “Tube” looks similar to the popular iPhone. The Nokia device showed graphical displays, such as a promotion for the movie Shrek the Third. Other capabilities will be featured, such as the ability to upload photos.

“It’s our first touch device,” said Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia.

However there does appear to be confusion as to whether the screen is a full touch screen like the iPhone. It certainly appears to support it and comes with a stylus as well but doesn’t support multi-touch.

We’ll have to wait and see.

You may remember a few days ago I posted about Novara and Digiweb merging and I said “but maybe we’ll see the big boys acting their age and consumers benefiting.“

Check these out.

http://www.mneylon.com/blog/archives/2008/04/09/infamous-at-last/

http://www.eoincostello.ie/Michele-Neylon-Blacknight.html

Well that hope was short-lived wasn’t it?

The word Puerile comes to mind.

I think Michele should be commended for limiting himself to the one dig in his post.

On foot of the previous post concerning my angst regarding FaceBook I went ahead to remove my profile.

After logging in and clicking on Account you have an option to Deactivate the profile. Further there is a little message telling you that you can login again using the same email address and password to reactivate your profile.

Seemed a bit suspicious that you could reactivate a deleted account so I did a bit of Googling to discover I wasn’t alone.

There are mountains of posts, blogs, forums and articles explaining just how difficult it is to actually delete your FaceBook profile.

However one article offered a ray of sunshine, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/business/18facebook.html

Apparently there is a magical form that will get facebook to delete not deactivate your profile.

And here it is,

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

Login in to FaceBook and then use the link above.

Voila all done. Next up was an email from FaceBook as follows.

Hi,

Facebook User Operations has received your inquiry. We should get back to you soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to review our Privacy and Security Help page (http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=433). There, you’ll find lots of information about Facebook as well as answers to many common questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Facebook User Operations

Now the waiting begins. I did all this three hours ago. I can still login to FaceBook.

I will post an update if I get further along the deletion route.

EDIT 24 hours later and still no further communications from FaceBook but attempting to logon gives this.

Incorrect email/password combination.
Facebook passwords are case sensitive. Please check your CAPS lock key.

I got an invite from Damien to join the “Take Enda With You” FaceBook network.

Darragh had a few reservations about joining and articulates them quite well.

The nub of his post is

This country needs people that do. Not just say they will but actually do. It deserves a decent healthcare system, a higher standard of education but also charismatic, trustworthy leaders who are seen to be willing to connect with people, to be honest in their dealings and to get the job done. I don't believe Enda is someone who is getting the job done.

I joined the group and I'm linking to the website. It may not make a difference but in some senses it's better than doing nothing.

Will you?

I have a slightly different angst about this FaceBook group. In fact I’m worried about FaceBook in general. If the revenue is quite happy to use FaceBook profiles to examine your affiliations and acquaintances which other organisations will do the same?

I know of one lady in Canada who cancelled her FaceBook profile because Social Welfare was tracking her online movements in order to detail her associations and other information. Originally when I heard this I was sceptical but a bit of a Google revealed the FaceBook trap.

The Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance (Welfare) and the Ministry of Children and Families are using FaceBook, MySpace and other public domains to find evidence of: * Undisclosed co-habitation (living with someone) * Spending beyond what is provided by the ministry * Casual employment * Leaving the province for more than 30 days * Gifts, pets and other income They are using this information, based on postings on personal websites, to deny welfare and disability pensions. Anyone on long-term disability or involved in collection action or the Canada Revenue Authority should also be aware. Information posted on sites like FaceBook is not private!

My only use of FaceBook was limited to people I played scrabble with.

So, not only am I not going to join the “Take Enda With You” group, I’m cancelling my FaceBook profile entirely.

I know it wouldn’t stop a determined effort to unearth my associations and affiliation but why make it easy. After all isn’t that the whole point of FaceBook?

EDIT I have attempted to remove my FaceBook profile as detailed here, but so far no success

I’m having a horrible day. I’m dying with a cold, drowning in my own phlegm, trying not to cough up the second lung.

In the middle of all this others are getting fit, spring cleaning and generally being unhealthily active.

On the bright side apparently I murdered Bertie. Not on my own of course, and not actually murdered either. Supposedly it was mob character assassination. Following a few of Mulley’s fluffy links it looks like everyone that blogs is a nasty little person.

One particular quote caught my eye.

“I have always seen them as little wankers masturbating in a room and hiding behind the computer while they write their nasty pieces”

Lovely description isn’t it?

I wonder if “I have always seen them as little wankers masturbating in a room and hiding behind their title while they write their nasty pieces” would go down well with Senators? Presumably it would as long as you call them by their title of Senator. See http://www.mamanpoulet.com/?p=370 and the second audio clip.

Still no matter how bad things get there is always the hosting wars to watch. Hat tip to Damien for this nugget, apparently Digiweb have bought Novara. A quick google of Novara and Hosting365 will reveal a little bit of tension between these two and Digiweb got involved a while ago registering domain names such as hosting364 etc. Oh I’m sorry it wasn’t Digiweb, it was a Digiweb employee. Apologies if you thought the two were in some way related.

Boards.ie used to have a hosting section that got so messy, acrimonious and downright nasty that it had to be closed.

5 years later and it’s still closed.

I’m sorry but you people need to seriously grow up and represent your industry with a higher standard of perceived professionalism.

I’m not here to play father, I didnt spawn you. Go away and find somewhere else to have your little bitch fights.

Board closed to posts, discuss it in Feedback if you wish. The permanence of this closure will be decided by an admin vote which is currently running at 2-0 in favour.
Lately WH has taken more time then all other boards combined and I just dont have to put up with it, so I’m not.

DeV.

So we now have two hosting companies merging to form a hosting company that could rival Hosting365’s presence. It should form the basis of intense competition, amazing value for money to customers and the growth of Irelands hosting economy. Maybe we could start to see hosting prices approaching US levels?

Ok so maybe the US bit is a step to far what with data costs, insurance and salaries in Ireland being what they are but maybe we’ll see the big boys acting their age and consumers benefiting.

Everybody has a list of applications they couldn't live without but mostly it's a personal preference. For example "Free Download Manager" for me is a fantastic bit of free software that does exactly what it says on the tin.

The problem with lists of "Best" apps is that they quickly become outdated. However TechSupportAlert have published a list of 46 Best Ever Utilities (don't ask me why its 46, 42 I would have understood) that they keep updated.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

OK so your best app in the world may be my malware but out of the list there are some goodies. By and large they are pretty good but the key point is that it's a live list constantly updated.

I could have posted a list here but what's the point? It would have gone out of date

If you want to help with the list they are looking for volunteers.

Call for Help: Try Your Hand at Reviewing

For the last two issues I've asked for volunteers to help with the new Wiki-style version of the "46 Best-ever Freeware" list.

For this project to succeed, each software category needs an editor to moderate user comments, so I'm looking for experienced individuals to fill these roles.

The response has been good, but more volunteers are needed because there are still quite a few software categories needing editors.

If you feel that you are knowledgeable about a particular software category such as "program editors" or "disk encryption" then why not share your knowledge by becoming the editor for that category in the "46 Best-ever Freeware list."

As a category editor you will be fully credited for your efforts, unless, of course, you wish to remain anonymous. It's a great way to get your 15 minutes of fame. It's also a way of becoming an internet "giver" rather than just a "taker". And you will be surprised at just how much you will learn from the suggestions of others; I certainly have.

As of now, nearly 30 subscribers have volunteered. but more are needed. If you are interested, check out the list of still-vacant categories here [1] and select the categories that you would like to edit.

Then email coordinator@techsupportalert.com with your selections plus a very short description of your background and experience. If you have any commercial affiliations related to any of the categories, please state them.

Feel free to select as many categories as you like or to suggest a new software category if you feel it is needed.

Thanks

Gizmo

I can get every other site in the interwebthingy but google is a no no


Tracing route to www.l.google.com [64.233.183.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.yyy.zzz
2 82 ms 61 ms 61 ms bas502.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.238]
3 71 ms 69 ms 67 ms vlan501.rt502.cwt.esat.net [193.95.137.125]
4 62 ms 63 ms 63 ms vlan52.rt001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.130.145]
5 65 ms 67 ms 65 ms ge3-0.br002.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.7]
6 84 ms 82 ms 87 ms t2a4-p9-1.nl-ams2.eu.bt.net [166.49.153.129]
7 80 ms 81 ms 81 ms t2a7-prc2.nl-ams2.eu.bt.net [166.49.200.33]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * 192.168.yyy.zzz reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.

Weird or what?.

A tracert to www. yahoo.com is fine.

Tracing route to www.yahoo-ht3.akadns.net [87.248.113.14]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.yyy.zzz
2 60 ms 59 ms 59 ms bas506.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.242]
3 61 ms 65 ms 63 ms vlan500.rt501.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.124]
4 65 ms 61 ms 62 ms vlan53.rt002.cwt.esat-x.com [193.95.130.153]
5 62 ms 65 ms 63 ms ge0-0.core002.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.18]
6 90 ms 89 ms 89 ms pos2-0.br002.ldn.esat.net [193.95.131.50]
7 94 ms 89 ms 91 ms ge-3-3-0.pat1.tc2.yahoo.com [195.66.226.129]
8 108 ms 99 ms 105 ms so-0-1-0.msr2.ird.yahoo.com [217.146.181.223]
9 102 ms 105 ms 103 ms ge-1-2.bas-b1.ird.yahoo.com [87.248.101.9]
10 105 ms 101 ms 105 ms f1.us.www.vip.ird.yahoo.com [87.248.113.14]

Trace complete.

Bit of a peculiar situation.

So I'm now running the latest greatest version of b2evolution but found a major issue.

Beside every comment there is an email icon which if you clicked it allowed anyone to send an email to the person that commented. EEEK!!!

So rather than risk some bot exploiting this I have temporarily enabled a captcha.

I don't like captchas as a rule but until I edit the code or remove this piece of stupidity I have no choice.

However I have made the captcha as basic as possible to minimise annoyance.

Any mails from the blog clearly state that it was sent from here.

Yep, it's true he is going, going, gone. Well actually he will be resigning on Tuesday the 6th of May 2008.

The teflon Taoiseach finally came unstuck.

Be interesting to see how the tribunal progresses now.

Bertie Ahern has thanked his family and friends for support during his years as leader of the country.