Troy Kelly

Hosting with OSX and using mod_rewrite

Thursday, Jul 15th, 2010 by Troy Kelly | Leave a Comment
Filed under: information technology, work

When you are hosting with Apache on an OSX Server box, the default setting is to not allow .htaccess files the ability to use mod_rewrite.

Sadly, no error is thrown to let you know you have no permission to call and use mod_rewrite – it just fails silently.

So, if you are using Joomla and trying to use Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URL’s, you must go in and edit the httpd.conf file for the slice that you are using.

Config files are normally stored in /etc/apache2/sites

Open up the config file, and find the line that says:

AllowOverride None

Make it say:

AllowOverride FileInfo Options

Telstra Billing Problems

Friday, Jun 25th, 2010 by Troy Kelly | Leave a Comment
Filed under: blogging, rants | Tags: billing, customer service, overcharging, Telstra, TIO

An example of the gross errors in the Telstra Billing System

An example of the gross errors in the Telstra Account Management System

Again I have had to spend weeks chasing Telstra to resolve a critical problem with their billing system.

I first became aware of the accounting issue on the 9th of June, and immediately called Telstra. After talking for quite a period of time just trying to explain what was going on, the consultant said it was going to take several days to clear up, and that I would get a call back before the end of the week to let me know everything had been resolved. My first mistake was hanging up the phone and letting the consultant get away.

The key issue was that in April I had the data plan on this SIM changed to a $39 per month for 3GB of data. 3 Gigabytes is 3072 Megabytes – and for those playing at home, this will become a very important number.

Telstra was only crediting me with 307 Megabytes of data each month. No, that’s not a typo – my permitted account usage in the usage manager was 307MB. You will notice that it’s very similar to the 3072 that I was meant to be getting, but just missing that final and exceptionally important “2″.

After several days went by, and I had heard nothing from the consultant who was going to write Telstra’s wrongs and get everything squared away – I called Telstra again. After some initial issues trying to explain that I had already had somebody looking in to the problem, and that I really should talk to them I was told by this new consultant that there were no notes on the account, and that she could assure me – no notes about the issue meant that nobody was going to be doing anything about it.

The new consultant however, was happy to start from scratch again, and try and resolve the issue if I could just explain my problem to her.

I started explaining that our business account manager at Vita Group had applied the change to my account, and that I was meant to get 3072 Megabytes of data per month, but was only being allowed 307. I continued explaining other particulars, and about half way through I was interrupted with her assurance that there is no 3GB account, and that it was I who was confused.

I told her that I had the email confirming the change in front of me, and read her an excerpt from it. Again, she interrupted telling me that there simply was no 3GB account, and there was nothing more she could do. Then, as I got the busy tone – I realised she had felt confident enough that I would just go away that the call had been ended for me.

It was now obvious that Telstra call centre consultants were either simply not equipped to resolve the issue, or that I just could not find one that was prepared to resolve the issue. I had tried contacting our account manager during this whole saga as well, but – there was no response from him (that was no surprise).

On I moved to the TIO. I completed my complaint and sent it off.

I will save you a lot of time but over the course of more then a week, every time I was told my call would be returned by my complaint liaison, it never was. I have had to call him to chase this up regularly.

So now we are nearly at a resolution, there may indeed be light at the end of the tunnel. I have an offer from Telstra to move me to a $49 per month plan, and that they will credit my account with $120.00 to cover the $10 difference per month for a year. This is indeed appreciated. The final sticking point however is the $1560 (at time of writing) that I have been overcharged for data usage, and the seven and a half hours I have spent chasing this issue.

Why should I be out of pocket for my time all because of incompetence at Telstra with systems, processes and staff? If I had contributed to this, it would be a different matter, but – not a single one of my calls has ever been returned when mutually agreed – and I didn’t cause the issue in the first place.

Choosing a portable music player

Thursday, Jun 17th, 2010 by Troy Kelly | Leave a Comment
Filed under: blogging

I was recently asked my opinion on portable music players, or MP3 players.. Given that I love to hear myself talk, and I have an opinion on most things, I was more then pleased to share my thoughts.

Microsoft, Apple or Sony?

Most people will agree that the top three players currently on the market at the Sony X-Series Walkmen, the Microsoft Zune HD and the range of iPod’s from Apple.

Of the three – my money is generally on the range of players available from Apple. There is generally something there to suit most people, and more often then not most budgets.

While the Zune HD provides a quality audio and video experience, without any real mac support – it can’t even be left in the running. The Apple range of products are also tied to a proprietary library management system as well (iTunes) but – at least it is supported on both Mac and Windows.

This brings the comparison down to Sony versus Apple. The Walkman has great sound quality and a fairly slick user interface. Unlike the Zune it does support both Mac and Windows operating systems. It however appears to get smudged and mark fairly easily, which is an aesthetic thing I know. It has a fantastic feature that the iPod’s don’t offer – noise cancelling.

Ultimately I still come back to the iPod. iTunes is almost entrenched as the music player and library manager of choice for many users both PC and Mac. It’s interface and management of the iPods is fantastic. If you choose the path of an iPod Touch, the ability to purchase, download and simply install applications on to your device is fantastic as well. Although the iPod’s don’t have noise cancelling built in, and I wouldn’t use the earphones that they come with either – I still think for quality and usability – they are still the overall winner.

Differences in Customer Care

Tuesday, Apr 20th, 2010 by Troy Kelly | Leave a Comment
Filed under: work

Today was a bad day for Purple Oranges technology wise. We had a major outage of our VoIP infrastructure, and then some call difficulties.

This little adventure has three players, and none of the outages are in any way related to each other – it just so happens that they all occurred on the same day. Firstly – NetRegistry, where we currently host our VoIP servers; Faktortel formally a VoIP carrier for us – now just a legacy connection because of some old DID’s that we can’t port away from them; and NetSIP our primary voice carrier.

With ten days notice NetRegistry advised that we were having both of our servers relocated at the same time. As soon as we were made aware, I called to discuss the relocation – and was told there was nothing to discuss. The server relocation has been planned “for months”, and the lack of notice was simply at the discretion of NetRegistry. Boiling down the conversation – I was basically told the server relocation had to happen, and NetRegistry were not prepared to work with us to ensure up-time for our clients.

When the relocation occurred, instead of contacting us when they were unable to shut down one of our servers – a decision was made by technical manager Jonathan Gleeson to simply pull power to the server. It’s at this point in time that things started to go very pear shaped.

Because of this (very) ungraceful shutdown of the server, we have had to spend hours rescuing it this morning. NetRegistry have our emergency contact details – but not even an attempt was made to contact us. Not even an email to advise us that the server had to be shutdown in such a fashion.

Obviously once the server was revived, it wouldn’t restart properly – causing our first issue.

Once we were revived, we find out that Faktortel are not delivering calls via our DIDs to our gateway. We trace the call traffic, and see no attempt to deliver the call. A ticket was lodged with Faktortel – and our infrastructure was immediately blamed. Coincidentally, shortly after our ticket is acknowledged – the calls resumed. In the interest of full disclosure – Faktortel insist that they did nothing, and when they checked our DIDs there was no problem. I only have my experience and time line to work from.

Now our infrastructure is all back online, at around lunchtime today – a few outbound calls failed. As soon as we were aware of the fault, I contacted NetSIP to find the issue had been detected and already resolved. I was apologised to, I was happy – and that was the end of it for me.

It wasn’t the end of it for NetSIP however. Less then 10 minutes after my call, I get an email from NetSIP to again apologise for the outage and explain in detail what caused the issue. And also – that we have access to a backup gateway that we should have been using, which would have negated the effect of the outage in the first place.

To briefly jump back to NetRegistry – after several phone calls, and emails today – I was called “difficult” by their staff (internal email that I was accidentally CC’d on). And another staff member was wished “good luck” in having to deal with me. It took a lot of communicating with NetRegistry just to get a decent explanation about what precipitated the urgent relocation, I still have no explanation about why our server was just pulled and no contact made with us.

To review..

NetRegistry caused what I consider a major outage for us, were obstinate and rude – and still have not explained their actions. I have however had an email conversation with Larry Bloch (CEO NetRegistry) which has calmed me down a little – but the whole experience is exceptionally disappointing.

Faktortel immediately blamed our equipment, and then somehow our DIDs started working without us doing anything. Their management has since followed up and suggested a different way of connecting that may resolve some of the issues we experienced today, but this is after the fact, and after a lot of my pointing out issues.

NetSIP have left everybody for dead. Not only have we had fault free service from them since they became our primary carrier, the first fault we experience is dealt with before we even detect it. A decent explanation is given for the fault, along with what actions have been and are being taken to avoid it in the future. And an immediate solution put in place to ensure the risk of any future outage is mitigated.

Perhaps I just expect too much of companies. Or maybe providers like NetSIP “spoil” me, by providing such excellence in customer care that other providers just aren’t equipped to live up to.

It leaves me wondering, when there are companies providing such good care – why are the other companies still around?

What’s wrong with the NAVMAN My-500XT

Sunday, Feb 7th, 2010 by Troy Kelly | 1 Comment
Filed under: rants | Tags: Garmin, GPS, Navman

Possibly the worst GPS device ever - MY500XT by Navman

After all the issues I had with my Garmin GPS unit, I decided to replace it with the most expensive device I could find. It turns out it is a Navman My-500XT. I have persevered with this device for many months, and now at the point of extreme frustration – I have decided to reach out to Navman for some advice. Below is an extract of my support ticket to the good folks at Navman.

My unit seems to be faulty. It was sold as being able to play video and music files, as well as being a market leading navigation device.

There seems to be a lot of functionality missing that is included in far cheaper devices – so I can only assume that there is something wrong with this particular unit.

Firstly, the device seems unable to play any video uploaded to it with your software. Playback is jerky, and pauses for long periods of time.

Music playback is also troublesome – with the music menu being unresponsive and slow.

I can not find an option to have the device automatically turn off when the car is turned off. Perhaps this option is in a menu that I have as yet been unable to locate.

Traffic reporting is operational, yet – unlike every other unit I have compared – I am yet to see your device automatically route me around traffic events. As I am sure you are aware – interacting with a GPS unit while the vehicle is in motion is prohibited by national and state law in Australia. So, presenting a hidden window that requires the user to interact with it is surely a bug?

I can’t seem to find any reasonably functional software to manage the music and videos on my device. The only software I have come across was on the software pack included with it, and isn’t even available for download from your site. Surely your own staff have used this software and identified the need for something else? Could you suggest something that doesn’t try and emulate the functionality of other much more widely accepted applications (like iTunes or Windows Media Player).. I don’t need yet another application, managing yet another media library.

Finally – the suction cup vehicle mount has now become so loose as to not be able to keep the unit facing towards the driver during normal use.

All in all – given that your unit is far and away the most expensive GPS device available in the domestic market at this time, I am sure that all of the issues raised above are simply bugs specific to my device. I look forward to your advice regarding a software update to resolve all these issues.

I would be deeply disappointed having to raise my concernes with the office of fair trade if you have misrepresented the device in your advertising as being able to play audio and video when it is obviously under-powered to do so.

Nexus One Failed Screen

Wednesday, Feb 3rd, 2010 by Troy Kelly | Leave a Comment
Filed under: blogging

Nexus One Failed Screen,
originally uploaded by troykelly.

What happens when your Nexus One falls from your pocket and hits the ground… The screen self destructs.
Sadly the second of our Nexus One’s died this afternoon in a spectacular fashion. Impressively the touch screen still works perfectly. But, as you can see the display is somewhat difficult to read.
To say I am disappointed with the build quality of the HTC / Google Nexus One – would be a touch of an understatement.
I have touted the sheer awesomeness of this phone to everybody who will listen, because it really is a fantastic device, unparalleled even by the iPhone.
From my time at Nokia, I know devices approved by the FCC must undergo “drop testing” and they must survive. How the Nexus One navigated it’s way through that testing astounds me.
I can only suggest that in this case, there was a build defect with this particular handset – in which case the phone should get replaced under warranty – which will be our next port of call.
My recommendation however… by a spare Nexus One or for those of us with modest earnings… be very… very careful.

Hottest 100 2009 – Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man

Friday, Jan 22nd, 2010 by Troy Kelly | Leave a Comment
Filed under: entertainment | Tags: Hottest 100, music, Triple J

In what conjures very little surprise for me, given the exceedingly high rotation of this song on Triple J – the winner of the 2009 Hottest 100 is Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons.

Cheers to Crikey for pointing out the J Mag article.

The Nexus One in Australia

Tuesday, Jan 12th, 2010 by Troy Kelly | Leave a Comment
Filed under: rants | Tags: google, nexus one

My Nexus One has Arrived

My Nexus One arrived yesterday here in Brisbane (thank-you DHL).
So far I am beyond impressed with the phone, and I am pretty confident this could be the phone that will actually be able to challenge other devices.
I am already a big Android OS supporter. What I have not been to keen on so far are the devices that are running it. My experience so far has only been with the ADP1 (or HTC Dream) and the ADP2 (or HTC Magic / Google I/O). They are nice phones, but far too underpowered for the needs of Android.
Finally however, the Nexus One comes with the power needed to use the phone as intended. Run apps, even in the background. Take great photos, and talk on the phone.
There are a few niggling things that are annoying – but I am hoping future updates will deal with it.
So often the Google developers seem to forget that Google accounts don’t always end in “@gmail.com”. As is the case with the automatic Picasa syncronisation built in to the phone. Although my PicasaWeb account is under my email address, the sync application has decided that I can’t possibly sync with it – which is a touch annoying.
Of slightly more concern are the four “soft” buttons at the base of the screen. They are the back, menu, home and search buttons common to most Android handsets, however, on the Nexus One – they are not actually physical buttons – just touch sensitive areas.
So far – it seems that you have to be touching another part of the phone at the same time as pressing these soft buttons to have any chance of activating them. This can get quite frustrating if you want to put the phone down on a desk and use it.

Rear image of the Nexus One

All in all I am really impressed with the phone. My business partner Adam, who has been searching for a phone for quite some time has spent the better part of a day playing with it as well, and even he has decided that it may be the device he has been searching for as well.
I hope that an Australian carrier (all the evidence points to Vodafone being the first) brings this device to market quickly here. I feel just a touch greedy keeping the Nexus One to myself.

The Oaks Embassy – Adelaide, South Australia

Sunday, Jan 10th, 2010 by Troy Kelly | Leave a Comment
Filed under: rants | Tags: hotels

I have come to Adelaide to join my cousin Tracey and family for her wedding. This is the first time I have travelled for leisure in quite a while, and it’s quite strange not really having anything that I have to get done.
I am staying at The Oaks Embassy, which is on North Terrace. It’s a four star hotel, which I would suggest is not deserving of a couple of those stars.
Not only was the whole reservation procedure painful and error prone, when I arrived I was surprised to find that they require a $100 per night deposit – to cover incidentals and damages. This is a four star hotel, so there’s no room service. Incidentals are the Movilink movies, and whatever they have left in the fridge.
Before I take you on a pictorial tour of my room, there is one photo I left out. On top of all the other issues I have had, the first thing I get to see when turning on the TV in my bedroom is two very scantily clad women tasting each others breasts for some reason. I am no prude, but – I don’t want to see straight porn, even if it is for free.
Now, on to the tour… (click on images to see a full size version)

I should have realised that I was in for a quality room when I noticed that the lock on my front door was broken.

My favorite room feature.. pvc tape which has obviously been in place for some time, holding the shower head in one, quite difficult, position.

Given that the front door obviously can’t be secured, I assume that house keeping’s solution was to leave a knife by the spa.. just in case there is an unwanted visitor as you relax.

Not tremendously important, but just indicative of the overall lack of maintenance – the broken toilet seat that will not stay up.

We then move on to the spacious kitchen/dining/living room. Where the kick-board under the dishwasher has been… kicked.

I guess it’s like a tip jar. House keeping have left some rubbish in the bin, so I would feel more comfortable putting my own in there.

Almost all the lamps in the room are all unplugged. Some with good reason… there just isn’t a power point to plug them in to.

Join me outside now to enjoy some of this dry Adelaide heat. Mind the lock on the door though, it’s completely broken and barely able to even stay attached.

If there’s nothing to look at apart from the building next door, I guess they have left this water damage as a feature? Maybe when it rains it’s like a waterfall or something..

And finally as we retire for the evening, why would I be shocked to find that the clock radio was unplugged?

Dynalite:: Using the LED’s in User Panels

Tuesday, Jan 5th, 2010 by Troy Kelly | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Dynalite Tutorials | Tags: dynalite, LED, user panels

I have only tested the following with UPan9 Devices, but it should hold true for any – as the command seems to be the same.

The LED’s on the User Panels are controlled via the command LEDOnOff()

It takes four hexadecimal values to determine which primary, and which auxiliary/backlight LED’s to turn on or off.

eg LEDOnOff(0x0f,0x0f,0x0f,0x0f)

The above example will turn off ALL LED’s on the User Panel.

LED’s are addressed from the top down, and in groups of four in a binary fashion. So – if you had a UPan9 with 8 buttons (only the first 6 have LED’s) Their addresses would be:

BUTTON 1 = (0×80,0,0,0)
BUTTON 2 = (0×40,0,0,0)
BUTTON 3 = (0×20,0,0,0)
BUTTON 4 = (0×10,0,0,0)
BUTTON 5 = (0,0×80,0,0)
BUTTON 6 = (0,0×40,0,0)

You add the binary equivalent of these values to turn more then one LED on at once. Eg. Turning on Button’s 1 + 2

LEDOnOff(0xc0,0,0,0)

As you can see above 8 + 4 = 12 (which is expressed as “c” hexadecimally)

The first “bit” of each pair is for ON, the second is for OFF. So, to turn LED’s 1 and 2 off, the command would be

LEDOnOff(0x0c,0,0,0)

The backlights (where available) are accessed in exactly the same fashion, but in the third and fourth sets. So – to turn backlights ON for button 5

LEDOnOff(0,0,0,0×80)

And again, by adding the values, you can access more at once. Turning backlights on for 3 and 4 and turning LED’s off for 1 and 2

LEDOnOff(0x0c,0,0×30,0)

The above are examples for Dynalite / DyNet Event (.EVT) code. I have had no formal Dynalite Training, and this is based on the ~scarce~ information available online. Your comments about errors / omissions are encouraged.

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