Random Bloggy Goodness
Some friends of mine have just launched a new web site, called “nibb’lous” where people can share recipes, comment and rate them, etc.
I’ve even added a couple of quick and easy pasta recipes.
And best of all, it’s free to start off with at least. Good on yer, Mac and Pete!
I’ve recently received some e-mails sent to the Admin. contact for some of our .com domain names from “Domain Renewal” (remi...@domainrenewalonline.com) stating that:
“It is time to renew your domain name {domainname.com}
Your domain name {domainnname.com} will expire within 90 days.
You may renew your domain automatically with Domain Renewal. Click on the link in this e-mail to renew the domain for another year. You should renew your domain as soon as possible in order for it to continue to be registered in your name.
Click here if you wish to renew your domain
——–>http://www.domainrenewalonline.com/for.php?d=domainrenewalonline.comAs soon as we have received your payment, you will receive a confirmation that your domain has been renewed…”
It’s not until further down the e-mail that you read – if you get that far through the last, large paragraph – that “you may also request your Internet Service Provider to renew the domain for you” which is the first point at which you might twig they are unconnected to your ISP or actual domain registrar.
If you do venture onto their web site, it’s been cleverly designed to feature logos from major technology firms like Oracle, Cisco Systems, IBM and Microsoft for no apparent reason (other than to presumably make you think you’re dealing with a reputable firm in the Internet sector).
Prices? Well how does $59.95 for one year grab you?
Another Spam presumably paid for this time by the RAC who should know better. They appear to have bought a list of spammed e-mail addresses from well-known spammer Frankdata International Marketing Limited and are thereby helping to keep this spammer in business.
Well I’d just like the RAC to know that I will never buy any of their goods or services as a result of this. If you hate spam, why not do likewise and boycott firms who use spammers.
[Update]
Well the RAC called me back a couple of times, but refused to get their Marketing Department - presumably the ones who paid for the spamming campaign and made arrangements with Colin Franklin to send it - to discuss it with me as they don’t deal with the public.
In view of that, a formal complaint has now been made to the Information Commissioner’s Office - see the link at the foot of this page.
I received more Spam today to an e-mail address I used exclusively to register domain names through Soho Consulting, so I thought I’d close that e-mail address down.
A quick check first that there were no remaining domain names to worry about with that e-mail address following the debacle with a simple transfer request, so I tried logging into the Soho Control Panel:
STATUS MESSAGE
Although your username and password were found on the system, your account has been suspended.
If you feel there has been some mistake, please contact our support department.
Bless them…
Calendars.
A necessary evil these days. I can’t be bothered with paper ones in the same way that diaries never worked for me.
No, I prefer my good old Outlook Calendar. In the latest version, it can also be set up to synchonise with a webdav-enabled web server which is nice, except that you can’t then simply go to the URL and view your calendar online, for instance in an Internet café or on your mobile. No, the .ics file can be downloaded and imported by applications like Entourage or Outlook, but you can’t really read or amend it when you’re out and about.
When I can be bothered, I can synchronise my Nokia phone with Outlook when I’m back in the office, just as I can my iPAQ, so that’s useful, but it means I have to be around the base PC and have to manage the connection.
I can also export my Outlook calendar and import it into Google Calendar. That’s all very well and good but it’s a slow, manual process.
No, what I want is a calendar that I can amend at my desk. It’s automatically published at regular intervals to the web where I can choose to keep all or part of it private or restrict who can view it online. I want to be able to add to it or change it on my mobile with any changes being made to all the versions automatically the moment I’m in range, either of a decent high speed GPRS link or a 3G one. And I want to be able to update it through any web browser and have those changes propagated immediately to the PC and phone versions.
Surely that’s do-able?
My trusty office chair seems to be struggling to keep it up, so to speak, occasionally dropping me a few inches at a time office sitcom stylee.
I want one of these:
…depending upon what you use to search.
Or so it would appear.
When I “upgraded” to Office 2007, Outlook “suggested’ I download and install Windows Desktop Search which they suggest is “Best in Class”.
Now I am already running Google Desktop and have been impressed with it.
Yesterday I tried out some Nero software (before removing it again as it didn’t do what I wanted) and that installed another search program that looked exactly like a re-badged version of Windows Desktop Search.
Anyway, I’d had ‘mixed’ results with Windows Desktop Search noting how the number of items searched would sometimes count down, or that the number of items to index would also count down without a corresponding increase in the number of items searched and indeed noting that it would continue to index my PC even when supposedly snoozing.
Couple all that with the way that it only seemed to want to know about the current Outlook post file and it began to take on the usefulness of a chocolate teapot; especially when you take into account the need to keep Outlook post files to an absolute minimum size in the latest version unless you want your system slowed down to less than crawling pace. Outlook 2007: bst avoided!
So the other day, I needed to find some access details I’d e-mailed a client a while back. I knew I wouldn’t find them in my current Outlook post file, so I opened the job-specific post file archive and asked it to search only to find that it hadn’t been indexed and none of the other search facilities in Outlook could help either. So I fired up Google Desktop and instantly found the details I needed…
I looked at the Windows Desktop Search preferences and manually added .pst files – curiously omitted by default – and made sure that the Archives folder was ticked to be searchable and after allowing Windows Desktop Search to catalogue everything unhindered – at the expense of it slowing down my system – I decided to run a little test.
I sent myself an e-mail from my Gmail account (excluded from my Google Desktop search items) with the name “Persephone Winterbottom” in the e-mail body. This came via a POP3 account into MailWasher Pro and thence into Outlook. I then opened an archive .pst file and dragged the new e-mail into it before closing it once more.
After both programs indicated they were up to date, I ran a search for “Persephone Winterbottom”. Now, you need to bear in mind that Google Desktop needs Outlook post files to be open to be searched whilst Windows Desktop Search shouldn’t if it follows the preferences.
And the results? Google Desktop returned a positive on the e-mail within the main Outlook post file. Not so good if you want to actually locate the e-mail in its archive but the program does return its contents within the browser window (which is good enough for me).
Windows Desktop Search still doesn’t seem to acknoweldge the e-mail’s existence whatsover, even days afterwards, so it’s been uninstalled here now.
My daughter has been referred to a consultant dermatologist by our family doctor. So far so good. We received a letter from the practice saying that our illustrious Government has introduced a system whereby patient choice is paramount: we can choose where she is seen and make appointments to suit ourselves.
Hurrah!
Despite being disappointed that somewhere exotic like the Maldives wasn’t included, we were given the choice of three hospitals: our local one (durr!) and two an hour or so each way away. So amazingly enough, we decided to book an appointment at our local hospital using the super-duper HealthSpace online booking system provided by NHS Connecting for Health:
“NHS Connecting for Health supports the NHS to deliver better, safer care to patients, via new computer systems and services, that link GPs and community services to hospitals.”
So we thought we’d have better care delivered to us and book online with the details we’d been sent. My wife started our Apple iMac, loaded Safari - the default browser for Macs - and went online only to be met with a message that that browser isn’t supported by HealthSpace. Oh dear…
Never mind, we’d use my PC instead. So I logged in, selected our local hospital from the three choices (actually I deselected the two hospitals that are nowhere near where we live) and entered a slightly later start date leaving the end date open.
Nothing. So I re-selected the other two hospitals and found three appointment slots in September - so much for choice. Back to our local one. I entered an end date for when my daughter is past her 100th birthday.
Nothing (see screenshot):
So my wife rang the booking hotline - not our local hospital… - and after giving our details was told that he couldn’t make an appointment as he was locked out and we should call back in half an hour.
How pathetic is that?
Good grief! I happened to be visiting a couple of Yuku Blorums and wished I hadn’t. Even given ezboard’s history of making Yuku as slow as possible, they’ve now surpassed themselves.
It’s taking me longer than usual to write this post as every page on Yuku is taking an eternity to load.
After a week of apparently ignoring their Yuku users as usual (although reports of slowness had been around since mid-June), the “Yuku Team” finally acknowledged what everyone else was saying and made an announcement that yes, Yuku was slow and no, they hadn’t fixed it. The usual ezApologists were talking them up in the Support [sic] Blorum.
On 15th June, Yuku did say that:
“We currently have some network congestion causing slowness in our systems, we are working with our ISPs and network operators to fix it
Thanks for the report and patience”
They also said that:
”We’ve been able to determine this happens generally on monday mornings, we are currently investigating what’s causing the slowness. We appreciate your patience”
So users were reporting slowness generally, but Yuku staff were only noticing it on Monday mornings, presumably as they don’t work weekends…
They also claimed it was those pesky search engines slowing things down:
“We have alot of crawlers on our site right now. We are trying to add a machine now.”
But isn’t one of the “benefits” of Yuku the “google friendly URLs and search engine optimized code”?
Why on earth are people still flogging a dead horse with Yuku? It can only be because it’s presently free but people are noticing board members leaving, etc. Maybe ezboard’s decision to have Yuku boards unlimited by size is a decision they’re beginning to regret (that is, unless it was a decision forced upon them by the feature set not supporting post culls? That’s just speculation as I don’t know if they can do this with Yuku as it stands).
Oh and still no news on the apparent disappearance of our money from ezboard…
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This is my blogchalk:
United Kingdom, London, English, Richard, Male, 46-50, Motorbikes, Trackdays.
Run on 1 February 2012 7:00 pm
1.28 mi in 00:13:23 (10:30 min/mi)
HR 158 bpm - Burned 164 C Run on 19 January 2012 6:23 pm 3.32 mi in 00:35:01 (10:33 min/mi) HR 163 bpm - Burned 431 C Run on 14 January 2012 3:40 pm 2.86 mi in 00:28:56 (10:06 min/mi) HR 171 bpm - Burned 388 C Run on 12 January 2012 6:36 pm 3.57 mi in 00:37:24 (10:29 min/mi) HR 172 bpm - Burned 518 C Run on 4 December 2011 3:37 pm 2.33 mi in 00:25:19 (10:52 min/mi) HR 172 bpm - Burned 356 C
