August 30, 2007
Uptime
Since one of our hosting companies has just been taken over (Black Cat Networks), our hosted servers are going to be switched off and moved some time over the weekend. It's a shame:
savs@server:~$ uptime
21:38:28 up 443 days, 14:22
That's one stable box right there.
Technorati Tags: computing
The prescient TomTom
So here's what I'd like to see: the prescient TomTom. I was stuck on the A30 heading toward Exeter, and a crash closed the carriageway I was on for more than four hours. Cars were stacked up as we sat and waited for the accident to be cleared.
The accident happened no more than 2 minutes ahead of me, but of course the TomTom's traffic updates were not fast enough to get me off the A30 and onto the back roads. If only the TomTom could predict the future, it might say "don't go that route" or "travel the day before".
More realistically, I can see a valid use-case for satellite tracking in all vehicles (hello, big brother!), together with some weather monitoring and software that analyses traffic patterns to auto-detect crashes, or even to predict them. "It's raining, there's significant amounts of standing water, and these clowns are driving erratically at over 100mph, this route will be blocked shortly".
I'm beginning to think a teasmaid should be fitted to all cars, too. Oh, and I need to get an in-car power adapter for my laptop. And possibly a satellite phone, since mobile reception in the corners of the UK is still somewhat patchy to say the least.
Technorati Tags: cars, gis, gps, maps, mobile, tomtom, transport, travel
Google Apps, take 2
At the start of this month, I made the decision to switch my personal mail hosting over to Google Apps, to try and dodge the unending torrent of spam and mail bounces I've been receiving. It also provides a useful test run for the possible outsourcing of some of the Sourcesense business infrastructure (you know the story about the cobbler's kids).
So, how did it go? I'm only really going to cover the email side of things here, since that was the most pressing thing I looked to Google Apps to fix.
First, the good news. I have an almost junk-free inbox, with maybe 5-10 bad messages a day getting through Google's defences compared to the several hundred a day I was dealing with before. A glimpse at the Google Apps site shows they've blocked some 16,000 19,000 rogue emails in the last twenty or so days. As far as I can tell, no false positives on the personal email.
I like the fact that through Google I now have a permanent off-site archive of all incoming mail. I configured Google to allow me to retrieve email via POP and to archive any emails I've downloaded. This is useful for those times I don't have my laptop with me. It's also extremely useful to be able to use webmail, especially as I'm increasingly on-site with customers where I don't have a network connection for the laptop.
Before I was so burnt-out just from the task of filtering and deleting hundreds of junk mails that I rarely bothered to deal with the real emails. Because Google now takes care of that, a nice side effect is that I'm able to get close to the "inbox zero" methodology.
Another thing I really like is the ability to have a personalised start page for my domain, with widgets I've selected myself and my own custom logo etc. Sure, it's just a portal and portlets, but it's nice nevertheless. Being able to log in and see my emails, calendar, weather forecast, and news is neat. Being to change and drag and drop and point and click is even better. Simple. Usable.
Now the bad stuff.
I'm not entirely convinced by the lack of folders in Gmail. Labels are fine if you only use the web client, but not much use if you use a desktop client as well. At the moment, my mail is being downloaded, and stored in IMAP folders on another server, making Google just a glorified spam filter. This is a bit silly, as I'd like to remove the extra server from the equation. I guess I could just switch off the extra server, import my mail archive into Google and then use local mail folders and trust to backups. But I've always felt some measure of security knowing that if the laptop and backups fail, I can still point any other machine at my mailserver and access 3gb of mail history all neatly filed into folders.
(For more on this, and how maybe mail folders are outdated, see Daring Fireball.)
There seems to be some bugs in the personalised start page implementation. In Firefox and Safari on the Mac, I find it prompts me to log in, and then loads just the calendar widget. I have to return to the start address manually in order to see all the other widgets correctly loaded.
You have to be really careful what username you use when you first set up your domain. My username is by default 'savs', but Google then tries to use that as the default email address all the time. I can add an alias, but then I have to select it every time I send an email. I could just create a new user for my domain and log in using that, but then I'd have to pay Google the fee for an extra user. I suspect if this annoys me enough I'll end up deleting the domain and starting again from scratch.
Because Google only supports POP, any messages I've read in the web client are showing up as unread when they hit my desktop client, so I see them twice.
The integration between various Google services is not good enough. My original Google mail address and my original Google Talk account can't be integrated with this domain. And for each new domain I migrate, I end up with a new Google admin account.
To summarise ....
In all, the benefits of not having to manage my own mailserver probably outweigh the niggling annoyances of the Google Apps solution. I assume Google will improve the service over time, and I've long since stopped worrying about having my data "in the cloud". I've since moved another domain over to Google, and I have my inboxes back under control. I'd still like to consolidate, but for now it's good enough.
Technorati Tags: computing, critique, email, google, sustainability, sysadmin
Attack of the nephews
So the week before last my nephews Tom and Ben came to stay, and I spent several days racing around after them and trying to think of things to do in wet weather. It seemed to go reasonably well - the one sunny afternoon we had was spent in the swimming pool, and we also ran around a maze, had a BBQ between rain showers, saw seals at Blakeney Point, went bowling, saw the Simpsons movie, went on a boat on the Broads and visited bewilderwood. Photos of the week (well, two of the week and seventy thousand of seals) in the flickr set and videos on youtube - though sadly youtube still doesn't pick up orientation information from Quicktime movies, so for some you'll have to turn your screen sideways...
It was fun but by the end I was looking forward to returning to work for some rest and relaxation!
Technorati Tags: family, holidays, nephews
N95 and TomTom handsfree
The N95 is great. The TomTom is great. Hooking them together is super-useful, using the TomTom as a hands-free car kit, and using the phone's network connection to download traffic updates.
But one thing really bugs me: there's no simple way to disconnect the TomTom and phone, for example to stop using the TomTom as a hands-free audio device.
The only solution seems to be to turn off the TomTom, then turn off bluetooth on the phone, then turn the TomTom back on. Anyone know of an easier solution?
Technorati Tags: bluetooth, cars, critique, gps, mobile, n95, nokia, transport, travel
Back(ish)
I'm back, sort of, touching base at home and the office, slurping up as much bandwidth as I can before I hit the road again. Got a flood of blog posts to publish, as well as a to-do list that knows no bounds. And a 6am flight in the morning...Technorati Tags: blogging, travel
August 27, 2007
August 17, 2007
Why I hate linux
I've just done a fresh install of Ubuntu 7.04 on a Dell Inspiron laptop. I popped into PC World and grabbed the simplest cheapest wireless network card off the shelf (a Belkin Wireless G+ Notebook Card), tried installing it, only to find it wasn't recognised by Ubuntu. Some googling showed me lists of pages talking about adding modules to blacklists, downloading the latest ndiswrapper packages and building them and compiling kernels, etc.
If this was 10 years ago I'd totally be up for that, happy to roll up my sleeves and dive into the terminal, crawling through lines of config files etc. But come on, this is 2007 - I should just be able to plug the card in and start working.
Now here's the happy part of the story. I fired up the Synaptic Package Manager, did a search for 'ndiswrapper', and installed ndiswrapper-common, ndisgtk, ndiswrapper-utils-1.9. I then ran the "Windows Wireless Drivers" program under the System, Administration menu, pointed it at /cdrom/FILES/DRIVERS/bcmwl5.inf, plugged the card in and it just worked.
So, if you're trying to get a Belkin Wireless G+ Notebook Card (F5D7011 or F5D7011uk) working on Ubuntu, ignore all the lengthy articles and forum posts. Stick with the GUI (of course, you need to know what packages to install though...)
Technorati Tags: computing, critique, linux, opensource, ubuntu
August 12, 2007
links for 2007-08-12
-
stuff for the nephews
-
stuff for the nephews
-
Stuff for the kids. This then a boat on the Broads?
-
Stuff for the nephews
-
Stuff for nephews. Treasure trail might keep them busy for 5 minutes
-
Stuff for the nephews. Crabbing at Blakeney followed by seal viewing trip?
-
Stuff for the kids
-
stuff for the nephews
-
stuff for the nephews
August 10, 2007
Passed port
Speaking of usability, which I wasn't, but anyway ... yesterday I was coming back through Schipol Airport where they're running a "self-service passport control" trial. Uh-oh. Sounds like a recipe for global terrorist attacks, or something.
So anyway. They have this huge green machine that's shaped sort-of like a standalone ATM, except not quite, as it's taller and thinner and exudes less "it'll cost you just to look at me" malevolence. And alongside it is a display with an exciting Powerpoint-style presentation that would give Tufte a shock. The display breathlessly informs us that we are invited to participate in a self-service passport trial, and it tells us this in big blocks of text in English or Dutch. These big blocks of text flash on and off the screen just slightly too quickly to read or interpret. Oh, and did I mention that this display "inviting" you to the trial is after you've already queued for 5 minutes, so it's not so much "invite" as "demand"?
And this huge green machine. I think it was designed by a confused five year-old who really wanted to draw space ships or Robby the Robot but was told "no, you have to draw a machine to scan ID for people that are in a hurry and already quite stressed out". And of course the kid, not understanding "scan ID" or "stressed out" and quite fazed by the whole concept of border control in general, but still understanding primary colours and big whooshy swoopy lines, came up with this really exciting machine design that might just read ID but would really be much better strapped on top of an Ariane 5.
At the top of the big green rocket-powered scanning machine is a touch-screen, except crucially with no indication of it being a touch-screen at all. It displays the message "choose your identification method", with a big glossy picture of an ID card and a passport, and tiny little green arrows beneath them that it turns out you're supposed to touch. You find this out by being told it by the supervisor who is stood proudly next to the machine. Maybe the supervisor's kid was the designer.
So you select your identification method and are then advised to place it face-down for scanning. There's no visual clue of where you're supposed to place it, and underneath the screen is what looks like a coin return slot, a horizontal glass square hiding a supermarket barcode reader, and a couple of centimeters above it a weird horizontal sheet of plastic with white lines across it. It seems like the obvious choice is to slap the ID onto the supermarket bar code reader, so that's what I did, all the time hoping I wasn't triggering the ignition sequence. After a few seconds of thought, the machine flashed up a new display: "proceed to passport control", and so I sighed with relief and headed over to a bored-looking border control guard who verified my passport the old-fashioned way (by laughing at my passport photo).
So there we have it - the computerised border control trial, demonstrating just how well the computerised check-in machines work by comparison. I suspect the results from this trial will be rather inconclusive to say the least. On the one hand I'm relieved that this user interface nightmare will never see a wider deployment. But on the other hand, I'm somewhat dismayed that airports won't be brightened up by bright green rocket-shaped ID scanners any time soon.
Technorati Tags: amsterdam, critique, europe, transport, travel
August 9, 2007
Social notworking and middle age
On the train the other week: I foolishly took off the headphones for 30 seconds to swap from listening to the laptop to listening to the N95. I couldn't help but overhear a forty-something businessman talking on his mobile phone to a friend:
I've just discovered Facebook. I thought it was just for kiddies but it's great fun. It's great. It gives me something to do during the day for a start...
The Facebook juggernaut picks up more steam, to murder a metaphor.
Technorati Tags: community, computing, facebook, social networks, social software
Cocoon GetTogether 2007
The announcement is out, the Cocoon GetTogether 2007 is on the way! This should be a great event, not only a hackathon and lots of excellent Cocoon talks, but also the opportunity to have some fine food, wine and sightseeing in the beautiful city of Rome.
The request for papers is also out, along with the cocoongt.org website.
Previously: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.
Technorati Tags: apache, asf, cocoon, community, culture, dining, opensource, hackathon, sourcesense
Google Apps
In which I move to Google Apps and kick sand in Google's face.
So, I'm moving my andrewsavory.com mail handling across to Google, in the face of an unending torrent of spam, bounces and viruses in the last few days. I thought I'd try the gorilla of mail services on the assumption Google have more resources than me when it comes to spam tuning. I've heard warnings of false positives from various people, but I'm a sucker so I'd like to see for myself.
Initial experience was a little confusing. The benefits of paying over the benefits of the free service didn't seem that great, the most interesting being migration tools (which seem the most obvious to be free, if you want people to adopt your service.) Also, the first month is a free trial, so I ponied up the virtual cash to try, with the intention to fall back to free afterwards.
It's annoying that google apps isn't tied to an existing google account.
The whole setup process is crazily bad. Twice I got grumbles from Safari about Google's secure certificate, and at one point I got a broken ad served up from https://www.googleadservices.com/ which left me with a blank page. Then there's complete non-sequiters, such as setting up a username but being given "spam me" buttons:
I mean, hang on - am I setting up a username, or an email address?
And now I'm being asked to verify that I own my domain, AFTER I provided my credit card details to Google. I'm sorry, but that is just evil. Given all the other barriers to entry they put in front of their customers, the least they could do is verify I can be a customer before taking my money.
Oh, and the verification process? They ask me to upload an HTML file with a verification string in it, that looks like plain text to me. So, do they want a full-on <html><body>googleverificationstring</body></html>? Or could they, in fact, just ask for plain text? Oh, and the URL they want to retrieve it from is http://mydomain.com/somesillyfile.html ... but y'know some of us are all retro and still use a www. in front of our domain names. Will Google obey the "301 GetTheHellOffMyDomainRoot" redirect?
Get out of here, you're kidding me? Google, master of the über-slick web services, using retro non-automated offline processes to verify my domain? Awww, c'mon! And guess what?
Sorry, we are currently unable to verify your domain ownership using any of the following methods
HTML file
Idiots. Look, it's right here: googlehostedservice
Ok, so my other option is CNAMEs. Although their advice is to point the verification string at google.com, but don't forget the trailing dot - so if you use bind, you want to add something like this to the zone file:
supersecretgooglestring IN CNAME google.com.
... and then all is good. Oh, and they also suggest you search for "CNAME lookup" to find services that will help you test your CNAME entry, but don't bother - the first few pages of search results don't include any such useful services. Great advert for Google's search, guys! Simpler to fire up a terminal and type in 'nslookup supersecretgooglestring.your.domain', which should give you back something like
Non-authoritative answer:
supersecretgooglestring.your.domain canonical name = google.com.
Name: google.com
Address: 66.102.9.104
After some further crawling through the Google Apps website, I figured I'm finally ready to throw the switch, so I updated the server's MX records to point all mail at Google. Let's see if it works. It would have been really nice if there was a "10 steps to Google mail" roadmap of all the things I needed to do, a checklist (with automated testing) to make sure everything was in place. As it is, I nearly missed a few important things, such as "catch-all addresses", which by default discards email. I tell people to email me with whatever_the_hell_they_like@andrewsavory.com, so by default I would have lost a lot of email :-(
Anyway, it's running now ... I've already got 5, no 6, no 8, no 15, no 21 emails in the 'Spam' folder, so looks like so far so good ...
Technorati Tags: critique, email, google, SaaS, social software, www