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News: I'm still here! |
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 Hello all!
Yes, I'm still alive, and being kept very busy. House isn't being completed as quick as I'd like but that's my fault. Laziness always kicks in when you get to the harder jobs, or you're very easily distracted by other things.
Our work has been almost non-existant for the last 5 weeks and we've tried a few things to try to regenerate business but it seems no-one wants to spend any money!
I have been busy writing code for two of the other websites that I host, our business one at http://4d-cctv.com, and our aikido one, http://mushin-aikido.com. Although there doesn't seem to be much to see from the coding to the general user's eye, I can assure you there's a lot going on in the background! If you are a member of mushin aikido then you will get to see a little bit of it when checking out your user control panel.
However, for the admins there are lots of administrative pages which I have written from the ground up using PHP and MySql. This also applies to our business site where I have been giving us a customer database and the ability to search for customers, get their details, etc. I have just completed a page whereby we can actually create and produce a quote in pdf format. That was fun. My PHP and MySql understanding is certainly taking a turn for the better, I can do so much more now than the old days. :)
I've also taken to repairing the odd PC. To help advertise this I have produced a basic website at http://it.webhop.biz. Take a look at all these sites, I have to shamelessly plug them!
I've been helping my son to start up his website and discovered some nasty little bugs with PHP Nuke software. One of the first that I found was that new users could register themselves, receive their email, but once they followed the link they were sent they were registered but found they couldn't login as their password was found to be invalid. That's not the case! The problem was that the user's details never made it as far as the user table in the database! So they never existed! This is caused by a lack of default values in the initial sql database. Using PHP_MyAdmin I created default values for the two offending fields and hey presto, it now all works! This only occurs with newer versions of MySql, above v5.2, I believe. I know why. :) Anyway, my son's website will be found at http://concretefox.blogsite.org. It's a work in progress, he hasn't set it up yet but early advertising can't be a bad thing! Good luck, Jack.
While at it, I also found out that my site hasn't been accepting new users either! I have absolutely no idea how long this has been the case but I have resolved the issue now so lets see what the future brings.
I will try and post items on a bit more of a regular basis and we'll see where it goes from there.
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Posted by Rob on Sunday, May 23 @ 13:21:58 GMT Daylight Time (82 reads)
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News: White Birthday |
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Hmmm, I have a white birthday. Pictures taken a few minutes ago (relative to the time I wrote this - tch!).
 
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News: Draytek Router - Part 2. |
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Well, my router has now been on for a few days with no further issues. I reported my problems to Draytek and let them know my findings and they have been extremely communicative with me. I'm pleased to say that they have been able to re-create the problem under lab conditions and their R&D lads now have the task of resolving the issue. So hopefully I've helped them identify a problem and they can resolve this issue once and for all and help out all the other people who have been suffering with similar issues.
Thanks, Draytek, for your support. I remain a loyal user of your prodcts. :)
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Posted by Rob on Friday, December 18 @ 15:46:08 GMT Standard Time (124 reads)
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News: Draytek 2820Vn Dropouts! |
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Firstly, I must apologise to everyone who visits my sites on a regular basis or uses my mail server as the service lately has been fairly awful! The biggest cause of my problems has been my Draytek Vigor 2820Vn router.
I bought this router because of the reliabilty I have had from my previous two Draytek routers. However, this latest one seems to have had quite a few issues. It has been rebooting itself on very many numerous occasions with no apparent rhyme nor reason, or just plain locking up. I thought it was down to the wireless part of the router being faulty so I disabled wireless to see if things would sort themselves out. The router appeared to be a little bit more reliable then but not completely, it would still reboot randomly and the lockouts seemed to still be quite frequent.
Well, for anyone out there who stumbles across this article and is suffering the same problems here is what I believe the solution is! The router has now been up and running flawlessly for the last 14 hours, probably the longest period of time since I bought it! I'm not going to say it's definitely the answer just yet as I'd like to give it a couple of days first to ensure I'm happy with it. Also, for anyone interested I am running with the very latest firmware, V3.3.3_232201.
If you are running your own DHCP server then this is what you want to check. Obviously you will not be running the DHCP server in the router, and if you're like me you'll have the router relay agent enabled pointing requests to your own DHCP server instead. DON'T!!! Disable the server completely! That's it! Obviously, if it changes then I'll update this page but for now I'm smiling. :)
A little tip for anyone who has two ADSL lines like me but has their second line with a completely different subnet. How do you route between the two subnets with your 2nd router connected to your 2nd WAN connection of your 2820? Easy! Run your 2nd WAN router onto one of your lan ports. Then connect a lan port to the wan port of the 2820.... tada! :D
If you're wondering why I'd want to do that here you go. My first line has a download limit, my second has none. I occasionally grab files through the newsgroups so I have a rule which allows my news articles to be pulled through the 2nd router while retaining other traffic through the first. Also, it means that my servers can run without detriment if I want to download files at full rate for a while, people can still view my websites and collect their mail.
Anyone got any other tips they'd like to share? Leave some comments to let everyone know.
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News: Christmas |
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Well, I hope you all had a great Christmas, I did. :)
Boxing day hasn't worked out quite so well. Got Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009 for the Wii for Christmas, along with a couple of golf clubs. Had a game yesterday and it's great fun. Unfortunately, one of the golf clubs seemed to shatter when Helen's dad tee'd off yesterday so he's had to play with a headless club!
Today, we set about another couple of rounds of golf. The first game went well (because I won today, I lost on the 18th hole yesterday)! The second game had some moments... like the batteries went flat in my controller just as it looked like I was going to get a hole in one! The ball teetered on the edge of the hole and a message appeared on the screen saying that my controller was disconnected! I quickly replaced the batteries but I think the pause stopped my ball, it didn't go in!!!! Ah well, it was close, reported as centimeters from the hole. A couple of holes later and I tee'd off with a cracking shot... unfortunately it was my golf club's turn to break, and it flew straight into the screen on my £1000 40" LCD TV. No, it didn't survive, we now have no telly. :(
Will phone Comet tomorrow morning and test out their extended warranty which is supposed to cover any accidental or otherwise breakage. I hope the salesman was telling me the whole truth when he sold me the policy otherwise he'll be visiting the hospital to have a broken golf club removed from part of his anatomy.
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News: Watch out - GAMESTAR PRO website |
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It's a long time since I've written anything on here but not getting many visitors sort of means that there's not much point. However, this bit of news I want to publish anyway. It's about a company called GAMESTAR PRO (www.gamestarpro.co.uk). I note that my site comes up quite quickly in Google with certain keywords so perhaps some new interest will be generated! :)
I did a search for a Nintendo DS Lite which I wanted to buy for someone for Christmas. After the usual Google searches I found a site with a bundle deal which was very attractive. I tried to place an order but I received a message saying that I'd entered my details incorrectly. I thought I may have made a mistake but sure enough, once again, same error reported. I sent a message through their web messaging system, as they have no phone number to call, asking them what's going on. Guess what, a week later and no replies.
So, why am I writing this now? Well, I've just received a call from Egg (we all know who Egg are, don't we?!). They asked me to confirm a couple of transactions, one for £1 as a test transaction and another for £366.90. Guess what? I've bought nothing! So I have now had to get my card blocked and have a new card sent out. Now, what would you be thinking if it happened to you? Probably the same as me, I suspect!
If anyone from GAMESTAR PRO happens to read this then perhaps you'd like to contact me and clear it up. It's quite likely that the two aren't connected but I must admit, a company who don't respond to their messages promptly after taking my card details don't inspire confidence in me when I get phone calls from my card company telling me my card is being used without my consent.
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Posted by Rob on Saturday, November 29 @ 11:01:42 GMT Standard Time (523 reads)
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News: Spyware Removal programs for free. |
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Furthur to my previous article I have been looking for more anti-spyware products that come highly recommended and, more importantly, are free. I have another two links for you...
AntiSpyware 2008 can be found at http://www.antispyware.com/. I haven't yet tried it out but it should be compatible with Vista and the write-up on the website seems impressive. I'll have to give it a testing to see how it performs. I'll let you know when I do. :)
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*** update *** I have now tested the above program! The website leads you to believe that the software is free... it is not! It scans your system for free and to eliminate the threats it finds it asks you to register. You fill in a couple of details and then it takes you to their page requesting a one time payment... so, not free as it suggests.
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Super Antispyware may be found at http://antispyware.org/. I have installed this once and it is currently running on my daughter's computer. It seemed pretty quick and effective, and it auto-updates it's spyware definitions.
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News: Spyware. |
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Came across a new Spyware detector which is deemed to be very good at it's job. Only trouble is that it doesn't support Vista!
Anyway, if you'd like to take a look then here's the link.
http://www.paretologic.com/xoftspy/se/newlp/xray/?uid=y9s3g
Oh yes, reason for mentioning it is that it is free! Makes a change as nearly everything seems to cost something nowadays. If you try it let everyone know how you get on in the comments. :)
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*** update *** I have now tested the above program! The website leads you to believe that the software is free... it is not! It scans your system for free and to eliminate the threats it finds it asks you to register by taking you to their page requesting a one time payment... so, not free as it suggests. It is quick though!
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News: Op! |
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Just thought I'd let you all know that I've now had the operation on my knee that I've been waiting for for so long. I had an arthroscopy carried out and the surgeon found a torn meniscus which he removed. I left the hospital an hour or so after the operation was completed and managed to carefully walk back to the car, which I wasn't driving! (Thanks, Helen!)
I'm currently sitting on the settee with my feet up. :)
Don't think I'll be training for a while now... but I don't expect you'll notice the difference anyway! :D
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News: Hello! |
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Hello everyone! I can't believe that people still visit my site when I've not written anything on it for so long!
Anyway, sorry about that. A lot of things have happened over the last year...
I finally managed to attain my black belt in aikido, and I still go, but not on such a regular basis. I really should go more often! I coach aikido too now! If you fancy coming along to a session visit Cinque Ports Aikido website, find out a bit more, and come along and join in. You never know, you might just like it.
I've put on a bit of weight again... damn food, I gave up the beer and crisp diet and have put on weight ever since. :(
I no longer reside in Folkestone! I met a really nice girl last year and am now living with her in Dover. My old phone line has gone; so, don't ring it, it's not there! :)
The server is still online as I moved all my computer equipment to my new address.
There's probably a whole lot more stuff I should write about but I won't for the moment. I thought I would just let you all know that I am still alive and well... and happy. :)
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 Welcome, Anonymous
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 Latest: grevinquote
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· holstenman
Mon, 6-9-10 at 1:14 pm
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Tue, 3-8-10 at 1:05 am
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Old Articles |
| Monday, November 06 | | · | Site Down! |
| Saturday, August 12 | | · | Summer |
| Thursday, January 19 | | · | Aikido |
| Wednesday, December 28 | | · | Oh, what a lovely day! |
| Sunday, November 27 | | · | No news... |
| Tuesday, November 15 | | · | Update on my migration to Zen. |
| Sunday, November 13 | | · | ISP Change! |
| Sunday, June 19 | | · | Change of broadband service. |
| Monday, May 02 | | · | Firefox and RSS |
| · | CS Source |
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