A Damn Good Idea....

I've had a damn good idea, seems my employers think its work looking at, but all on my own time, they're not willing to fund it... grr... anyone want to fund software in the leisure & entertainment field?

I need a salary, rented office and a little trust for once... I'd think after working at my current employers for 10 years they'd trust my knowledge of the business and the technology I work with, but seems not. Grr.

COM or UK?

I've just noticed that my blog, without anyone asking me, has been changed from ".com" to a ".co.uk".  This change pretty much happened server side, I've had no say in this, and it resulted in my blog being offline when loaded from a cache'd copy... A refresh cleared this, but hey ho.

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Right, onto todays blog post... I've had a fair bit of networking problems... My main PC, running an N Band/class wireless network card from RALink Technology suddenly could not connect to my wireless network, there was pretty much no reason for this, and windows being windows it had no idea.

My Linux laptop, and hot boots from a Live Linux CD (thank you Linux Format) worked without a problem.

I tried all kinds of fixes, the end result was I got back onto the network after:

1. Banning a local MAC address from swamping my router with requests to connect (Someone has a new machine/laptop, imaginatively called 'ASUS01', which was hitting my SSID with a request to connect repeatedly) - But, a bug in my router software was stopping me being able to see the whole MAC Address, so I trooped off down stairs wired into the wireless router and turned off the security.  This ASUS01 instantly connected, and I had its MAC Address, which I then banned from my network.

2. I turned my security back on, and since I have a swanky router, with an LED status screen built in, I could see my machine upstairs connect, so I unwired and headed back up... The machines were all on.  But not everything was sweetness.  I was getting randomly dropped, sites were showing DNS errors and worse of all I had to move my antennae way across the room to even stay connected... That ASUS01 was basically broadcasting so much wiresless noise it was breaking my tenuous link to my own network.  A painfully slow download later, and I had an updated driver for my wireless card, installed and the flakeyness stopped being such a problem.

3. ASUS01... I'm tempted to let this thing back onto my network, and to nuke it... Dunno right now, its gone midnight, and I was hoping to do some work.

Hackery to Change this Project

Its one of those days, those days where all the best laid plans get utterly screwed over... The reason for this conclusion...?... Well, there is a major project due by Friday, we're a man down and it seems of all the people here I'm the only one working delivering something.

But that's not the problem, the problems today have all been coming from elsewhere.  First thing I was asked whether I had any idea about a certain class in the code... I didn't... I looked and, it was literally called a hack and had then been commented out, but it remained a dependency within other places throughout the code.  But the person asking me seemed to think I knew about this class, seemed to think it was mine...

Lets see, its not commented, its not documented, its called "Hack" and been nastily deprecated by changing its name - telling me that it was removed by someone not doing whole system rebuilds to check themselves.... There is a person who fits just such a bill around here... So surely that direction needs looking at!?!??!!?

That's one thing, the next thing... I can't build the system!  Why...?... Seems certain branches, undocumented, without forethought have been converted to include new projects which use some horrid third party library from sourceforge... Without documentation I was asking the person whom had pointed me at this branch for advice and was informed that it should all work... "its builds for me".

I puzzle over this, finally giving up and looking at this third party project on source forge... its just a hacky project to take an XML input (a quite badly formed XML input as it goes) and produce MSI scripts... Why is this in our project branches?... And why is this stopping my build?

Basically, the build affects the Visual Studio tool chain, and allows the build of a new type of file.  Trouble is... I'm not using Visual Studio, the build system I'm using is there for automated building, its using the MSBuild  tool chain directly... This sourceforge hackery does not integrate with the MSBuild environment... Ergo, I can't build from source any more...

Now, this should ring bells, hoot alarms and at least wrangle any decent manager of a project into action... The manager on this particular project... Just shrugs and tells me to get on with "it"... whatever it is...

Someone else, someone not here, has hacked and slashed, someone not here has injected a dependency without any forethought, without even documenting anything... yet this is my fault....

I hasten to add, when I come up with an idea to add something I have to document it, get it reviewed and push it right through from end to end... this other person... just stuck this in... and to run salt into the wound made sure the manager accepted it by getting them to install a piece of software on their machine, meaning they met all the dependencies and were able to argue with me about whether the code builds or not...

Hacks hack hack, change for changes sake, yet again... I'm starting to hate this... Poor project management, no documentation and absolutely no forethought.

There's dog shit on me drive....

I'm going to do one of my rare direct follow ups to the previous post... The pitbull, its a big staffie cross with something... and it turned back up Sunday morning...

A couple from 162 Broad Land brought it home, it had "Spent the night in our bedroom, its a lovely dog".. The ass hat house sitter was all delight and relief at seeing it back...

Before it came back I spoke to the lads at number 1, forewarning them of the crap which had come out of his going off at me, and to his credit the guy from number 1 went around and put the guy straight about the dog getting out and how the area had been secured again...

So now this ass hat has my telling him, the guy at number 1 telling him, and people from broad lane telling him and the police telling him... But still no appology for my wife or I...

In fact all we've gotten so far is more and more dog shit from this dog appearing in the lane, and this morning the biggest pile of shit right in the middle of my drive, which I've returned... How do I know its his?... Well, they feed the dog a dry mixer meal, and its a distinctive mid-brown colour... the faecies is likewise this colour...

I have since spoken to the community police team about this, they already knew about the incident, it did after all include a threatening behaviour and a potentially dangerous breed of dog... I've also spoken to the council.

And the next time I find dog shit on my drive, path, garden or alley, I'll be going to a solicitor.

P.S. I have a lovely  pair of pictures of this pile of dog shit on the wife's phone.

More Pitbull Tribulations

Some of you may have read my previous post about my tribulations with the pitbull belonging to the prior occupier of number1?... Well... Now strikes the house sitters at number 9...

Someone, we don't know who moved into number 9, they had a dog and that dog has been lonely, howling, scratching and left for hours on end (15 hours+ today at least).

Anyway earlier today this thing got out, it was roaming between the gardens of number 1 and number 3... Right next to mine, my wife and I came in and suddenly out of the undergrowth shot a cat, with this dog attached to its rear end.  The cat doing a runner and this dog whipping off god knows where after it... I assumed this dog was number 1's... Told them "Your dog's just had that cat"... Only to be informed it is not their dog.

Moments later the dog reappears and the guy from number 1 puts a lead on it, and we work out its number 9's... So, I knock on their door... Nothing... We're waiting this dog is soft as shite with humans, unlike the last one I tackled, but these two guys from number 1 have it and with no answer at the door we take it through my alley and out my garden around the back to see how it got out...

It got out because, these masterminds had decided that to stop an American Pit Bull Terrier that a piece of wire grid could be held in place by what looked like a bar stool, a pot plant and a wheelie bin.

But, anyway, with water and food, the lads from number 1 screwed this wire into place, put the barricade back up as well and we stepped away.  I then put a note through the front door:

"URGENT your dog has escaped and attacked a cat, its back safe, the lads at number 1 have secured it.  Feel free to chat about it, number 5".

The dog was there all day then, howling and whimpering.  I spoke to it twice and it was quiet for maybe half an hour, it had a couple of rawhide chews thrown in and some biscuits and the dog was there well into the dark as I visited it one last time at around 11pm... At which point it had been left from around 8am... We had (that is I heard from number 1) someone had come in a silver car to check it, and these numpties at number 9 have a silver car.  So there you go, I didn't see them come however, and as far as I know I heard the dog whimper at or around 8am and it was still howling and crying at 11pm.

So, I tried to call the RSPCA... No luck, its not a stray on an A road, its got food, water and shelter its not neglected, and it seems a lovely dog with people, so I called the police operator; this being a none emergency.

I had a lovely police operator talk to me around half 11, and she said she had three staffies and that tonight "You have to bite the bullet and tomorrow mediate with the owner, let them know you spoke to us"... so I left it there, midnight rolls past, the dogs whimpering.

I'm sat working and listening for a car, I still hear the dog whimpering at half midnight ish, I'm not going to be exact, I was working.  But I can be exact about the next events, 1am, they appear in their car... I can hear sudden crunching on the gravel (which litters the property) and I can hear a male voice calling for the dog.  So I lean out my bathroom window to say hello, and let them know the goings off...

Only to hear them realise the dog is gone... Well fuck me, the lash job by number one has held all day, but that dog is now not there... I'm trying to tell the guy I can hear (but not see, it being pitch black)... That the dog was there minutes ago... When behold, the wanker element in this knob shank crawls out...

"You've got my dig, give me my dog, its against the law to hold a dog against its will!" Fuck this and cunt that and to be frank, I've had enough of this, there's a female voice now calling from the pitch dark trying to hear me, but he's yelling over her, what is he yelling... He's on the phone to the police.

Fuck this for a game of pass the puppy, I walk away from my window and I call the police operator back, unfortunately I can't find the one I had spoken to earlier, so I explained what had gone off, how I had called and that he was now out the rear of my property f*ing and blinding at me... Oh and that now he was knocking on my front door!... Well, seems the young lady was, she had found my note from earlier and was stood with a pleading look on her face, but this tattoo'd alcohol soaked fuck wit gob shite is stood behind her seething, and I'm not doing this all over again.  So the police operator hears all this and instructs me to leave it to officers to deal with and walk away.

The officers arrive, I explain to them, invite them to view my property to see I've not got this idiots dog, and they go talk to him... Quarter of an hour later they're being kicked out of his house, with a stream of swearing floating out after them.

A few minutes later one of the officers returns to talk to me, she wants to see the dogs in my property, because this dip shit thinks he came onto the rear of my property (trespass) and called her name hearing her bark... Well if he came onto my property he'd have heard my two toy poodles and old labrador bark certainly, but not this dog I'd been left to baby sit all day in the hopes of it being quiet enough to let me sleep.

So, the officer meets my labrador and in true comic fashion the poodles parade past and I get to point to them and declare "That ain't a pitbull".  The officer bless her heart saw the humour in this, and departed, but not before telling me:

"He's [the guy mouthing off] is a hot head, he's had alcohol and is now fretting because its not his dog, its not even his house"... According to the officer "they're house sitting, and he's now afraid of his friend coming home from holiday and finding his dog gone"... 

Now, I refer you back to the barricade put in place... which he was yelling about being brilliant dog retention material... Who ever that dog belongs to, should know and needs to know, the two people he put in charge of his animal are idiots, plain dyed in the wold idiots.  Its not their fault, maybe they've never had dogs, maybe they're a bit slow, who knows.  But clearly today they've left that dog, and left it a long time without any attention.  It was lonely and frustrated and like all smart, strong dogs its got out... Despite my and the guys at number 1's best efforts.

And, I've been threatened and verbally abused in the street for my effort.  I understand he must have been shocked to see no dog, but its all a problem of his own making.  Leaving a dog for 15+ hours... Leaving it on one of the hottest days of the year with one piddly bowl of water and some dry mixer food...

Now, all that said, I also don't think the dog has been exercised whilst they've supposedly been looking after it, indeed since the dog arrived I've seem piles of dog shit in the lane, I've seen dog shit flicked over the timber fencing onto the white gravel of the properties drive and I've been woken at gone 11pm hearing someone let a dog exercise (I can't say it was them, or that dog, its pitch black) but I get the feeling they're just popping in on the dog now and then.

Today, the dog was howling at 8am ish, and certainly made a lot of noise at 8:44... I last saw it at around 23:00 and called the RSPCA at 23:17 for advice, and the police switch board at 23:30 ish, when I could still hear it... That's 15 hours... Alone, fretting, whimpering and crying... Is it any wonder its now fucked off.

Add to this the problem that we live on a country lane, there are horses in the field at the end of the lane, there are two farms within spitting distance (literally) which host horses, there are cows in the area, people keep chickens and there are even sheep from time to time... If a farmer saw this dog worrying live stock he'd be likely to shoot it... And I saw this dog go after and get that cat... horrible... Adorable with people, terrible with animals.

So it seems, I've done another good deed and had it thrown in my face, so this is it, I'm done, no more letting people out at the junction, no more helping people in the street, no more polite in difference to the scum out there; if you're scum you can get out my way, and right now this lot are scum.

In the morning, when/if they dare talk to me there better be white flags waving high and clear, else I'll detonate.

SCO Out

I've been sad to read over the last few years about the woes of SCO, the once great Unix vendor; at least in my opinion.  At my first IT job there were minicomputers running a customized cut of SCO, I remember a new bunch of server hardware from Compaq coming in and the delight of the IT manager esconsing himself in the dark musty old design office (literally a dark dungeon) and getting on with installing the system.

He literally put the system together on the machine, set up the RAID and everything in the dark at the keyboard.

That job was my first taste of server operations on "medium" iron (minicomputers) and I've been fascinated with servers and setting them up ever since; not that my current employer has noticed this in any reasonable fashion.

Today though SCO are in the news as filing for the final embers of bankruptcy they're down and out and going to be gone, a shame, I remember their service as excellent here in the UK and their software... Well in two years tending the flaky NCR based minicomputer I never had it tip over and as far as I know the Compaq kit to replace it was destined to live out a life of 15 planned years...

At the same time I saw this SCO jump up a level I was introduced to the AS400 from IBM, and was woefully underwhelmed, the SCO running machine we'd just had set up cost in the region of 7K and was designed to run something like 15 sites throughout Northern England, as well as collate a warehouse, stock and tabulate sales.  The AS400 I was introduced to cost something in the region of 12K, was the near as makes no difference same specification, carried a huge service & support cost to it and was only going to run about 50 hand-held scanners and control stock in one warehouse... It literally beggars belief the different in performance.

So, with the going down of the Sun over SCO (no pun intended) I for one saulte the memory of that blue yellow and white packaging arriving, and how it brought that system alive through tender carressing, not through leaving the man in IBM white uniforms to their blackbox of tricks.

My Weekend Planning

This weekend I have a busy old schedule for myself, beyond Friday the wife and I want to, paint the middle living room (three shades on five walls no less - paint by numbers anyone?), I want to sort all my computer kit from the back cupboard and I want to find some time to fix up my friends PC and sort out my fathers, which is blowing through kettle leads each time he shuts down....

All this is going to be a huge burden... So, here I am on Tuesday, planning for Friday evening... In my head at least, because as we all know no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

My first task computing wise is to just check if VMWare player (4.0.4 I think) runs on Ubuntu 12.04, it wasn't last time I checked... My reason for this?... My main desktop machine is running a dual boot vista & Ubuntu 10.04... That distro is now well out of date, so I want to upgrade... 

This upgrade of the desktop will then be echod on my laptop... And on my friends PC... Its going to be three installs of Ubuntu for me....

Painting, will have to be Saturday... perhaps with some code Saturday evening.

This leaves Sunday, for probably more painting... and... sorting the cupboard... and cleaning the study/computer room out.... Not a task one would relish...