My Nan, a Laptop and an annoying sales man in Currys

So yesterday I had to take a train (because cars out of action) to Portsmouth to see my Nan as she’s just has broadband installed so needed to update her Antiquated old PC with an Ethernet card and run updates as well as buying her a nice little laptop. You know, to get her on the line.

Now the first thing that began to strike me with this was when I began setting up her VirginMedia account when first connected to broadband, while its perfectly simple for myself, and even the average person for an all be it perfectly mobile 60+ yr old its not so easy to work out.

The laptop…

So we went round a few of the shops looking at all the laptops trying to find something which has everything she needs to check her emails, browse onlines and skype with her sister in Tenerife. Now we find a couple but most are priced ridiculously and we eventually settle on a nice little Acer Aspire 5334, 3GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, Dual Core 2Ghz CPU, and of course a nice 1.3Mp web cam and a half decent price at £399. Perfect!

Now by this point we have spoke to a couple of salespeople from each store, most were more than helpful and didn’t force the extras, do you want? .. No. Ok. You know, how it should be? But the last salesman we called over in Currys to actually buy the laptop just could not help himself, and even resorted to some nasty scare tactics. He claimed that if you don’t use a paid Anti-virus like Norton (which is just an extra £59.99!) that you were totally unsecure when shopping online, and those silly little free ones are worth nothing! (even though if you get the right ones they often do a better job than Norton by a long shot!). Of course at this point my Nan who doesn’t know much if anything about computers is looking rather worried, and if it wasn’t for me there to say know could very easily have ended up paying £60 for something she doesn’t really need… because hey… shes going to browse a few sites and not much else and VirginMedia provide some ok protection software for free, and she has me on standby to help if something does go wrong.

And then we get to the till… and of course the dreaded “Would you like to take out our insurance?!!!!” comes… No thank you. But why?! … Because it’s a waste of money… It will sit on a coffee table and barely leave the living room. So chances are if it breaks it will be a manufacturers fault – which by the way, you have 3 years for electrical goods under UK law.. Not 1 – and should she drop it down the stairs and it breaks, she has house insurance if she doesn’t want to pay out for a new one!

Of course he persists with how its needed and its only £8.99/month! I was not happy by the end of this encounter as he has just infuriated me at the bull he tried to use to pressure my Nan and me into buying more than we wanted.

The best bit I found was when he had the cheek to say “From one expert to another” to me while trying to say how to secure the system… Argh.

The whole encounter has made me realise just how much someone who isn’t computer literate can easily end up spending on simply getting online.

Poorly Written Rant OVER!

123-reg, refuse to update my .eu domain info!

I recently ran into some problems with 123-reg after taking advantage of their offer on .eu domain names and finding that the REFUSE to update the Company/Organisation field on the Technical Contact.

As they were offering .EU domains for around £1.20 I thought I would grab a few and grab myself a bargain, however I soon ran into problems when I tried to update the contact information for the domains.

As you can see below, for the technical contact on a .EU domain it clearly states that users need to contact support in order to have the Company/Organisation field for the Technical Contact changed.

So, I did as told and opened a ticket with 123-reg to have the detail changed… which they flat out refused to do – Read their reply below.

My Initial Message:

Please change the company on the technical contact from “Webfusion Ltd” to “XDnet Web Services” for the domain xdnet.eu

Thanks,
Dan

123-Reg Support Reply:

Dear Dan,

Thank you for contacting 123-reg on the 01st April 2010.
The technical contact cannot be changed. This information will remain as it is on the domain as we are the technical contact of the domain if you have registered the domain with 123-reg.

If we can be of any further help with regard to this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind Regards

Farhan
123-reg

My Second Reply:

123-reg and/or WebFusion Ltd is NOT the technical contact for my domain. You are the registrar.

I work in web hosting, I am my self a domain reseller and I know how the who is works. Please don’t BS me.

Your own system states that “* For .eu domains, please contact 123-reg support if you need to change the Company Name.” you also have support articles stating the same.

As I am the owner of the domain, and you are the registrar it is your responsibility to update the who is with the information the owner (that’s me) requires.

Please do so.

Regards,
Dan Rodgers
XDnet Web Services

123-reg support Second Reply:

Dear Dan,

Thank you for contacting 123-reg on the 01st April 2010.

I can confirm we can change the ownership details for the domain, however not the technical information unfortunately.

If we can be of any further help with regard to this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind Regards

Faiza
123-reg

Now as you might imagine, while yes the technical contact company is only a small detail, I still found it unacceptable that 123-reg was actively choosing to deny a simple request which I am more than entitled to do as owner of the domain.

I decided I wouldn’t let it rest, so persisted. And it worked.

I thought I would give 123-reg the benefit of the doubt, and thought that perhaps there might be some kind of limitation for changing the Technical Contact Company, so I went straight to the source and contacted the dot EU registry (eurid.eu) which stated:

EURids accredited registrars should be able to make changes under
registrant technical contacts and this can be done without any fees from
EURid.

So, after I established that this wasn’t the Registry, this left one link in the chain to contact – Tucows which is the real registrar behind 123-reg (123-reg are a mere reseller of Tucows).

After a couple of emails to Tucows they went through proceedure of contacting 123-reg about it and requesting the login details for my domain to the central OpenSRS management system. After no response and 123-reg still not replying to my support ticket asking for the login Tucows forced it and sent me the login details themselves.

Which provide me full management of my domain, direct with the registrar! Win!

I decided I would share this little story, both to share my anger at 123-reg’s lack of co-operation in the matter and also to hopefully show other users who may be facing the same problem with 123-reg and their .eu domains a way to have the details on the domains THEY own correct for the owners.

I would also strongly encourage people facing this problems to get in contact with the Tucows Compliance department on compliance [at] opensrs.org who can hopefully help you resolve the problem and eventually gain full management over your domain. Please also drop a comment below as I would love to hear from others facing this problem.

Vision2learn suck.

Yes, I am sorry. This is a rant.

Recently I was recommended a site Vision2learn.com and thought I would take a distance learning/online course to build up the CV and gain a useful qualification.

Their website says about how courses are for 16+ etc so thought, great a free course! Apply online, got a huge wad of paper work in the post, after spending almost an hour, reading over and filling in all the registration forms, I called the number to check if I had to fill in one of the forms… and was told the course was only available for 19+… and the call ended pretty quickly after that.

Now me being extremely irritated that not only was I unable to do a course, which according to their website, I see no reason as to why I shouldn’t be able to do, and to have spent my time filling out a ton of paper work, much of it filling in the same thing 40 different times.

And now, it’s 2 days after I emailed them and still no response… and yet they can send me promotional emails telling me to sign up for courses!!!

Bottom line, Vision2learn which is run in connection with Somerset College suck.

OVH Technical Support is bad and worthless.

I run a small web hosting company, and work with multiple data centres and software suppliers etc to deliver my products, one of which is OVH.

Been using a server with them for almost 4/5 months now and, while the server seems fine the technical support is terrible.

A month or so ago i added an extra 10GB network storage to the RPS which now found I don’t need, so hey why not save a few quid a month and ditch it right? … No…

I called them up to ask about getting it removed before i renewed the service and paid the last invoice, something I consider to be reasonable, expected a few minutes on the phone and it to be done, however apparently they can’t do downgrades…

And if i wanted to downgrade i should have done it within the first 7 days… and I agreed to it… sorry… what?!

For me to get an RPS server without the unneeded extra disk space I will have to order a NEW RPS and migrate everything over to the new one, now while I can move 1 of the 2 IPs on my current RPS over I would be unable to move the main one… the one I and my customers use for everything.

Now it is my understanding that the process of changing disk space allowance is simple, if i request a upgrade the system puts it through a tech sits there types in the commands to the network storage node and allows me more disk space. So logic dictates that the exact same system should work in reverse, they remove 10GB – end of.

I have now been forced to renew the service, and pay the extra few quid for unneeded, unwanted additional diskspace so as not to have to 1, loose an IP which is in use on multiple websites by many clients. 2, take a server which has been stable and online with NO issues for over 2 months offline disrupting many streams which support radio stations from bedroom operations to large commercial stations, dependant on them.

Not only did I find the outcome dis-satisfactory but also the technical support person on the phone was also, rude and unhelpful add on top of that he sounded like he was half asleep and mumbling does not equal good customer satisfaction.

When the person first answered, and I explained the issue, he mumbled about me emailing instead, to which I tend to think – Hell no, I’m paying for a service and you have phone support to get off your lazy arse and do it instead of trying to pass it off and delay me getting the information i need for another 12 hours – after I replied with “sorry? what.” he mumbles nevermind and spouts the spiel about how if i want a refund – which i don’t – it has to be done within 7 days of purchase. It appears OVH have no understanding that when your purchase addons etc you purchase them as a monthly product, as you do their servers, you pay for them on a monthly basis, and not as a buy and get locked in product, each item i pay for is monthly, and i should have the freedom to discontinue these monthly addons at will – WITHOUT having to completely reorder my server.

I can only conclude from my current experience with OVH is do not use them unless you are VERY experienced with servers, and require NO support with your products.

DO not use them if you are an end consumer, instead try a host which works with users – try XDnet Web Services

FAIL: YouTube Britains Got Talent Licensing.

I was checking out the shows on YouTube now to see if they had any others since i last looked, and i immediately see Britain’s got Talent…

I live in Britain. This is a British show. Shown on British TV. Why the F#!? isn’t it available on YouTube in Britain… I mean come on! Are you Sh!ttin’ me?!

And yes… I am submitting this to Fail Blog.

So much for me watching Susan Boyle again and again… guess will have to just watch all the clips uploaded without permission of the show eh… instead of the version which YouTube can put specially targeted high quality high return ads on.

Well done YouTube. Nice one.

Noob amuses me.

Now, my MSN address is plastered all over the Internet on God knows how many forums, websites blog you name it; and often i have some er “special” people who add me and then just randomly pop up… like this guy. Offering web hosting to a web host, a web host which i might add is better than him. but then again, i would say that ^^.

Noob: need host
Dan: Hello
Noob: need host
Dan: Okay, what do you need hosting.
Noob: so am i
Dan: Ok.
Dan: What is your website?
Noob: http://lime-host.co.uk/index.html [ Its okay... hes not online any more strangely.. ]
Dan: lol
Dan: i know your host.
Dan: I also know the guy he is in business with :l
Noob: who
Dan: ******host,
Dan: Sean
Noob: nope lol
Dan: yep
Noob: no
Dan: lol
Dan: go on then whos your host
Noob: jack
Noob: dual-host
Dan: really…
Noob: yh
Noob: y
Dan: so why is your name servers for lime-host with ******host
Dan: and the server IP is the server ip for *****hosts shared webserver
Noob: old we need change it
Noob: just uploaded old 1
Noob: lol
Dan: lol
Dan: so your still using ***** host servers then
Noob: unno
Noob: umm
Dan: rofl
Noob: g2g bubi

Okay, so just to be clear…

This is a person claims to be a web host who, doesn’t even know where his main business site is hosted, what server is on or who is running that server.

Noob web hosts annoy me, they give people like me who genuinely have a clue a bad name.

Tags: chat log, msn, noob, web host

YouTube ads which cover video thumbs?!

I really am blogging too much about YouTube… noticed this earlier where on the “Spotlight” (that’s the feature page for any one who understands logic) and they have a “promoted” video which was covering up half the thumb nails!!

Now obviously this is because they changed the ad format size and added the box bit below the video, but surely this should have been noticed?

Yet more proof that YouTube don’t properly check their site before making changes, which while this is all good for smaller even medium to large size sites YouTube which is one of the largest sites in the world, a site which uses MORE bandwidth than the WHOLE of the Internet used in 2000. This is a BIG site owned by one of the largest companies i history and yet they can do basic things to provide a professional looking website…

YouTube: Intrusive Ads are NOT the way

So literally only a few minutes ago a massive advert appeared on the YouTube homepage. Couple this with the country/language localisation selection box which seems to be stuck to the page no matter what I do this massive add now means i have to scroll a full page to view homepage content.

Now I am by no means a small minded ranter, i know Google has been in desperate need of a way to raise revenue from YouTube as it eats money like no bodies business – Its estimated YouTube sends a whopping 1 terabyte of data every single second, that’s around 858993459200 bits/second now consider this a high end server might have a 1Gbit card (google might have got high capacity transfer rate cards on there specialised custom web servers which they developed); so if we assume they are using a 1Gbit card on each server that still means they would need 858,993,460 servers! Naturally since Google own YouTube LLC they will share DCs but bottom line YouTube – Millions of USD pouring out in every possible direction with millions spent on bandwidth, power, engineers every hour you can see why its important to get some serious monetization out of the site, and i would guess Sony are lining Googles pockets very nicely for this very large very bold advert on their homepage, but i have to question, is this going to be beneficial in the long run?

Partners can have ads on their videos yet i am not in the habit to immediately click the X instantly, and they are little more than a annoyance.

And for me the same goes for the new big bad ad on their homepage, which just delays me getting to their most valuable asset. The Content.

So what do you think? Should YouTube start sticking large ads on the pages, or should they try more subtle routes of raising funds, maybe extending the buy functionality on music videos, such as adding more vendors other than iTunes! – Amazon maybe? Of course they could always try the possibility of opening up more features to normal users instead of just partners, if every video had adverts they could make a lot more money from the clicks…

Or maybe selling “bug” space on their video player, like on some TV stations where you have “BBC” in the corner of the screen; this is a perfectly workable model which YouTube could introduce where for example Nike’s tick logo shows in the corner of every video for a few days, massive advertising for Nike which would increase brand awareness and yet discrete advertising which doesn’t get in the way of what the user wants, the content, videos, users community.

Comments and thoughts appreciated, comment below send me a message anything you like always good to talk to people.

Tags: adverts, bad, videos, youtube