Schinckel.net

I noticed an ad in my Adsense section today. At first glimpse, it looks like an advertisement from Apple for iTunes.

Version 7.5 Free Download The Latest Version. Just 99c a Song Fast Download - 100% Guaranteed.

Then I hovered over the ad, and noticed the link: iTunes-Classic.com. I followed the link, and came across the dirtiest, dodgiest site I have ever seen. Well, maybe not the worst, but it’s pretty scummy. “Download straight to your iPod” Free, written everywhere over the site. And then when you click on a link, and go to the “Join” page:

3 year Unlimited VIP Membership for only $49.95 - $11.65/year 2 Years Full & Unlimited Access for only $16.44/year 1 Year Unlimited Access for $29.88 Supercharge my Internet connection with our award winning Download Accelerator for only $14.95 and download up to 300% faster!

I’ve even hunted around this site further, and I suspect it is one site of many that do similar stuff, since there are domain names like: transaction-id.com secure.signupsecurity.com and so on, with product names and so on. My tip: they don’t offer any services, and charge $50 to allow you to download iTunes, which is free from Apple. Their FAQ even says this, but they spin some shit about making it easier for new computer users to be parted with their money find the software they are looking for.

This seems to be pretty new in iTunes (i.e., I haven’t noticed it before): if you are viewing an album in the grouped view, and you have ratings on some or all of the tracks, it displays an average rating for the album:

This is in a different set of stars to the normal rating of tracks. However, you can explicitly rate an album too, which changes it to the other type of stars:

Interestingly, if you do this to an album with tracks already rated, it will choose ratings for the tracks that haven’t been rated, so that it creates the right total rating:

This rating isn’t stored with the track, if you open the Info window for one of the hollow star rated tracks, it hasn’t actually been rated.

This is quite interesting.

In the latest firmware upgrade for Airport Extreme N servers, there is a new setting for IPv6 Firewall.

I received this in email today:

ZTMC is interested in advertising text links on schinckel.net, or other websites that you might own.

ZTMC manages a network of advertisers that range from large corporate sites to kid friendly sites.Many types of advertisers are represented in the network, with the exception of adult sites and warez (hacker/pirated software) content.Again, no warez or adult sites ads are displayed.We would like to display four links randomly on your site, ideally on every page of your site.Home page only or run of sub-section ads are also an option.Typically, the ads are placed in the footer of your site but they could also be in the header or a side bar.Payment for these ads would be upfront each month, the first month being paid once the ads are live and reviewed for proper setup.

Our monthly agreement would continue indefinitely, and we will pay you in advance based on the day of the month you began running our ads, providing your site performs as expected.

These ads are not banner ads, they are simple one line text links.You will be able to theme the links, adjusting the size and color to fit your site as you see fit, as long as they are properly visible to the users.

I hope you agree that this is an interesting way to help you grow your website and monetize your hard work.

Please contact me if this interests you.I will provide examples of these ads on existing sites and hopefully we can agree on a monthly fee that will be mutually beneficial.

Thank you for your time,

Nicole,
Marketing Manager
ZTMC, Inc.

Now, this is actually the first Spam email I’ve ever seen that might be selling a product I might be interested in. Apart from the fact that I don’t use that website anymore (although they have addressed this), and I already have an Ad system. Not that I’m really that happy with Google AdSense, but I’m close enough to actually receiving a payment after several years I can’t stand to leave.

And finally, I cannot bear to respond to a Spam email. So bad luck, Nicole, you should have chosen a more appropriate method of trying to get new business.

Well, Mail.app got worse. Instead of just downloading a few, then one message at a time, it then refused to download any messages. And when I went into the web interface, there were a heap of messages there.

I changed around some GMail settings, so that it forced it to download the messages again. All 500+. And I have to delete the duplicates.

(Actually, I changed the POP username to recent:email@domain, and there are 500 messages in the past 30 days. Much better than getting all of them…)

Grr.

The New Wild West • This Way • Jewel ★★

I didn’t really get into the new series(es?) or Dr Who. I used to watch it as a kid, since I only had two TV channels, one of which was the ABC, and this, along with The Goodies and Monkey! were staples of my afternoon/early evening viewing. Then, later on, it was time for The A Team (which, along with Monkey!, I wasn’t really allowed to watch), and the original Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers and the like.

So, I wasn’t really that interested in watching Dr Who. Except apparently there is nothing else on any of the other stations at the time it is on, which is a Saturday early evening. So, in the last month, I’ve been tuning in. It just shows you how I don’t have a social life, too.

And the episode aired last night was fantastic. Statues that are really Quantum Assassins, that turn to stone when any living creature looks at them, so they look like statues. But if you look away, then they can sneak up on you, and kill you.

And the time travel aspect was cool. Closed loops of time, effect predating time. Timey-wimey stuff.

Looks like my Saturday nights are now booked. At least 7:30 until 8:15 p.m., anyway.

Or Python3.0, as it is also known, has been released, or rather, the first alpha of it has.

It builds okay on OS X, although I’ll need to download some stuff to get it to build bsddb and readline, among other things. Since I use these two modules, I’ll get them at least.

There are lots of changes in python3.0, including integer division returning floats, and input() being what it should be (instead of having to use raw_input()). print has become a function, and a whole lot of other things have changed. In fact, programs are likely to not run under 3.0 without a rewrite.

I’ll keep 2.5 around for a while longer, methinks. Hell, I’ve still got 2.3 on here, just incase.

According to Optus, they are not using Telstra DSLAM ports for new connections, but have their own hardware installed in exchanges.

This was the reason given to a friend why her ADSL could not be connected.

I’ve received two emails from Gotalk in the past couple of days, relating to my services with them. Until the end of October, I’ll have been on WildIT’s $36/month (or similar) plan. This is a 265kbps plan, with 12Gb/month before shaping, although I’ve never really been shaped, and I’ve pushed down over 23Gb in a month. I also have a couple of hosting setups, although they don’t deliver much traffic.

The two emails dealt with these two services. I’ll include them, as they are kind of relevant. I’ll address them in detail individually.

Dear Matthew

As you are aware, gotalk acquired the telephony and internet business of WildIT in late March 2007. gotalk is an Australian owned full service communications provider and we strive to provide our customers with quality services and best value for money. The products we offer include landline, mobile, internet and broadband voice (VoIP). Our aim is to make our customer’s life easier with great service and the use of the latest technologies, all on a single account.

We are streamlining the number of service plans on offer, and the purpose of this email is to let you know your plan options with gotalk.

Recommended changes to your plan

gotalk has reviewed your current plan, and recommend below what we believe is the gotalk plan that best suits your current needs, based on the information available to us.

Your current Broadband plan is :

DSL SERVICES

Service Number 08######## - Plan RG 256/64 ADSL (non-monthly)

From 1 October 2007, we will move you to the following gotalk plan :

DSL SERVICES
Service Number 08########
New Plan gotalk Standard 256 @ $39.95/mth
Includes 1000 MB

Please note that gotalk will automatically move you to the above gotalk plan on 1 October 2007. It is important that if you would like to find out more about this plan, or discuss other plan options, you will need to do this by 30 September 2007. You will find plan information on our website at www.gotalk.com, or please call us on 1800 468 255 and we’d be happy to discuss your options.

If you have additional services such as dial up internet, VoIP or hosting from WildIT we will contact you again shortly regarding these.

Free upgrade from ADSL to ADSL2+

gotalk also offers a free upgrade from ADSL to our hi speed ADSL2+ service. To see if ADSL2+ is available in your area, please check here or call us on 1800 468 255 to check availability and to take advantage of this free upgrade.

Thank you for your patience during the transition phase from WildIT to gotalk and we look forward to meeting your communications needs today and in the future.

Kind Regards

The gotalk team

Okay, my hassles with this. I’ll start with the pedantic. Why must you boldify your company name, every time you have it included?

Now that that is out of the way, it’s down to business. My current WildIT plan includes at least 12Gb of data, for more than 10% less. Yet you want me to move to a plan with a much lower data allowance? Based on the evidence you have? Either you have crappy evidence, or you are fucking useless at interpreting it! I suppose you also come to the conclusion that evolution isn’t real, based on evidence?

Secondly, are you expecting me to only look at this on the last day before my plan changes over to your ridiculously expensive, low data plan? How am I supposed to churn before then if I only look on the last day? Then I’d be without internet for several days, or pay you shitloads for internet.

The other letter I received is regarding hosting, and it is even worse. I’ll leave out the majority of it, but know that I have four hosting accounts, all of which cost me nothing. That’s right, not a dollar. Ever. No money at all changes hands regarding the four sites I have set up.

Your new hosting internet plan from 1 October 2007, will be gotalk hosting. This hosting plan gives you 500MB of disc space and 10GB of data for just $19.95 per month. Excess data is charged at 8c per MB and is capped at $50.00.

Okay, let’s let the bold thing slide again. But can you seriously expect me to pay $20-$70 dollars per month for hosting? I currently pay nothing! My other site, located at a reliable, proper hosting company, costs me around $.10/day. That’s $3/month, and includes a hell of a lot more services than you offer. And it’s reliable, and not staffed by fuckwits, apparently.

So, gotalk (ever heard of capitals, by the way?), I won’t be continuing my services with you. And don’t you dare try to charge me a disconnection fee. You still owe me a month’s worth of service, since I paid that in advance. But I suspect you won’t be paying that back to me, will you.

Address Book on OS X has a neato “Find Duplicates” feature. But it doesn’t do everything I need it to.

On a mobile phone (Nokia ones, at least) if you have more than one contact with the same number, it gets confused when one of them calls, and doesn’t know who to display on the caller list.

So, a proper “Find Duplicates” should find the same number, and even further, the equivalent number if using +countryCode numbering, and allow you to choose who gets to keep the number.

This is most noticed at workplaces, although when you have a couple, such as your parents, who have the same home phone number it also manifests. That is, assuming your parents are still living together, anyway.

I might have to knock together an AppleScript to do this. (This entry is a note to self about that).