Monthly Archive for September, 2007

Vodafone Business - Worse Than Useless

Last week, I was away on business and when I tried to connect to my office PC using my 3G Datacard, I was unable to.

Back at the office using a wireless connection, I was able to connect “remotely” with no problems, so it’s not a problem with either my PC or my laptop.

I am going away for a few days soon, so I have just tried again and failed again. So a telephone call to the support number from Vodafone’s Mobile Connect software help files was made. They can’t find the datacard’s number in their records but then when I tell them it’s a Vodafone Business account, they redirect the call to Vodafone’s business centre at Newark. After 40 minutes on hold - I kid you not - I finally get put through. They are apparently experiencing high call volumes - never a good sign…

Once past the people who DHAFC (Don’t Have a F*****g Clue), I finally got through to a techie called Kevin who went through all sorts of troubleshooting before deciding that we needed to set up two configurations in the software: one for regular web browsing and webmail, etc. and one for establishing a remote desktop connection. Unfortunately, the version I had downloaded very recently from Vodafone didn’t have the ability to set up multiple configurations, so he set up an FTP account for me to grab version 9.2 which when installed and set up now seems to work fine, if a tad clunky as I need to switch configurations depending upon what I need working.

Of course, the fact that earlier versions of the software and/or the settings at Vodafone worked just fine before the “upgrade” with none of the profile switching is neither here nor there. I wonder if Vodafone hired Microsoft’s Windows Vista team to write it…

JavaScripted e-mail Links in WordPress Pages

You may want to include an e-mail link in your WordPress Blog’s “About” page or elsewhere, but no doubt you don’t want this harvested and you’ve found you can’t simply add the JavaScript to the post or page as it gets nuked.

So how about a workaround?

Firstly, you need to create an external Javascript file with this code (amended for your own needs, obviously):


function obfuscate() {
var ppclink = "Click here to e-mail us";
var ppcname = "nospamthanks";
var ppchost = "yourdomainnamegoeshere";
document.write("<a href=" + "mail" + "to:" + ppcname + "@" + ppchost + ">" + ppclink + "")
}

NB: the “@” sign is represented in the code as “& # 64 ;” with no spaces.

Save it as something like emailobfuscator.js and upload it to your server.

Then in the post or the page you want to include it in, add the following code:

<script type="text/javascript"
src="/scripts/emailobfuscator.js" mce_src="/scripts/emailobfuscator.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
obfuscate();
//-->
</script>

You will almost certainly want to uncheck the “Use visual editor when writing” checkbox in your User options before this will work.

And the finished result should look like this:

WordPress 2.3 ?Dexter? Released

Read all about it here:
http://wordpress.org/development/2007/09/wordpress-23/

RIP Derek Boynton

Derek Ian Boynton

Derek Ian Boynton 1954 - 2007

The Trouble with Google…

I’m one of those people - as you’ve probably noticed - who displays adverts on their web sites, in my case, Google’s AdSense ones.

Now these adverts generate income for me whenever someone clicks on one of those links. What happens is an advertiser pays Google to display their adverts on sites where certain keywords chosen by the advertisers trigger their ads being displayed. In turn, Google give a percentage of that revenue to the sites displaying the adverts. I pay for some advertising his way as well.

What I’m noticing more and more these days though is that the revenue from displaying these ads. on my sites is coming down despite the fact that I am displaying ads on more web sites than before and the sites having become more popular.

I’ve never made a lot of money from Google - at its best, I was making roughly a dollar a day which was more or less covering my own spend.

But last month, for instance, my ad. revenues were down by a third. Now we’re talking small beans here with me, but if I were running an online business that relied on Google AdSense for its entire income, I’d be seriously worried.

I wonder what’s causing this squeeze? Ad-blockers? Too many sites chasing too few advertisers?

?Armless (Redux)



‘Armless (Redux), originally uploaded by Captain Blue.

Three mornings in and the colour’s starting to come out nicely ~:0)

‘Armless



‘Armless, originally uploaded by Captain Blue.

This is (some of) what you get when you fall out of the loft, trying to avoid the ladder on the way down.

Deadliest Catch

An unlikely television hit with me has been “Deadliest Catch“, a documentary surrounding the crews of a number of crabbing vessels in the Bering Sea that has been showing on Channel 4.

I always said I would do anything to provide home and board for me and my family and even now I sometimes work for a couple of days and nights on end without sleep, but my working conditions are nowhere near as hazardous or arduous as these guys’. That is real work.

Fascinating viewing. Well done to Channel 4 too for airing it at 8.00pm on Saturdays.

Forced ezboard Board Migration

So in December 2006, ezboard Inc. wrote:

“Do I have to switch to this next version of software?
“No, not unless you want to. But we envisage that almost all ezboards will be switched over to this version at some point in time. We will keep server clusters running old software for some time…

“Do I have to move my board to yuku.com domain?
“No, you do not have move to yuku.com. If you’d prefer to stay on ezboard.com with your current ezboard software you can….

“Will my ezboard forum be switched over without my consent?
“No, boards will need to be switched by the admin. At this stage, they will not be switched over by our system if you do not initiate the switch.

“What will happen if I choose not to migrate my board?
“At this point in time, nothing. Your ezboard will continue to run as it always has. You have a minimum of 12 months* before you need to make a decision, and as stated above, some clusters of boards on the current software may be kept running.
“* written in December 2006 - these details will soon be updated…
“This page was last modified 10:41, 12 September 2007.”

So I’d guess that from that, you’d be pretty safe to assume that ezboard, Inc. would not migrate ezboards over to Yuku without the board “owner’s” consent and they would not need to make decision about switching until into 2008 as a minimum. Well, you might be safe to assume that if that were to have been a statement from a company other than ezboard, Inc. who - let’s face it - are not exactly accurate with their statements in my experience.

Strange then when on 5 September 2007 a user, “Wild Jazie” writes:

“I’ve heard some boards have been migrate to yuku without the ezop’s knowledge, is this true?
Becuz I don’t want my board moved until I absolutely have to… “

Surely not? Er … well … yes! On 6 September, an ezboard Customer Services Rep., ezDollar, writes:

“Regarding ezboards being migrated without request, it is my current understanding that this is true in some cases. We haven’t been given any further details on that subject.” [emphasis added]

Another user, kerryborn28, writes:

“We do NOT want our board moved without our permission. I thought that Mr. Labatt’s blog made it clear we would not be moved without us giving permission.”

Ah yes. Those would be the Labatt blogs on Yuku and ezboard that ezboard, Inc. have removed as part of their efforts to erase the past.

Along comes another user, David Pierce, who posts the question about backups which he then repeated on Yuku (before it was deleted).

In it, he states that:

“EZBoard had foolishly left their own backup system connected to the rest of EZBoard, making it a prime target for hackers”

ezDollar is quick to deny that, writing:

“Unless you are ezboard staff, a law-enforcement agent who worked on that case, or… the hacker… you cannot possibly know how the hacking was accomplished. Therefore, the above quoted statement is speculation and/or rumor and should not be stated as if it is a fact.”

Funny that, because he, along with many of us, recall Labatt saying that the claimed hacker had managed to hop over and delete the backups…

The regularly-touted line that “Yuku is still in beta” when anything goes wrong, is then used against them by “7dlh7″:

“If Yuku is not finalized yet, why are we being told INvoluntary migrations are in the works?”

Good point! ezboard can’t have it both ways.

And then, on 13 September 2007, a rapid “clarification” by ezDollar:

“I said that it was my understanding that a few boards had been migrated without the ezOps prior knowledge. That was true — that was my understanding, based on something I had seen posted elsewhere — but it was a misunderstanding on my part. Yuku staff has informed me that they are not migrating boards except at the request of the ezOp and that no one has been forced to migrate.

“It seems that there have been a couple of situations where a board was migrated as part of a developer’s test, because the developer thought the ezboard was abandoned, but the ezboard was not deleted and those situations were resolved postively. There have also been situations where there seemed to be conflicting and confusing requests from ezOps and admins of the same board so, if you are an admin or ezOp, please make sure everyone on your board’s staff is on the same page before you request a migration or ask to have one stopped.”

So it’s Yet Another Yuku Developer Cock-Up! Yeah, right…

Meanwhile over on Yuku, “gobonas99″ writes:

“So…if there are no mandatory migrations happening yet, then WHY is the ezboard that I frequent being FORCED to transition to “Yucki” this week - even though the Admins have NOT requested a transfer (and in fact submitted tickets to request the transfer be stopped) because the majority of our members do NOT want to move until we absolutely have to??”

“alison” lets it rip with:

“No ezboard has been migrated without the knowledge or agreement of the admins. The ezop of your board has agreed to migrate to yuku.

Edited to add: We’ve found a ticket from your admin asking to stop the migration. We can do that, of course - but perhaps your admin should talk to your ezop?”

ORLY? “rmangles” writes:

“I’m the ezOp of the board mentioned above.

ezBoard/Yuku began the migration process with no input from the ezOp or Admins of the board. When tickets were entered, there was no mention of stopping the process.

The migration itself is F***ed up and I’ve exchanged numerous emails about it.

No one has ever mentioned that the migration could be UNDONE.

How do I make it STOP, Alison???”

So who’s lying? You decide, dear reader. I know who I think it is..

Hiding the Past ? Again

So I posted about awkward user questions (for ezboard, Inc.) about Yuku backups that had the audacity to quote what Labatt and his cronies had promised in the past.

My blog entry ended with this:

“Ouch! So Alison shuts the thread down. Standard behaviour from ezboard.”

I was wrong. That wasn’t the extent of their standard behaviour, which has been remedied today by the thread being deleted or hidden … as usual. Now that’s standard behaviour from ezboard!

Oh and after posting about the Justin Timerlake KickApps advert thingy yesterday, it’s been quickly removed by them as well.

Oh the power!




overtone