The O.C. Englishman's blog

So, on my travels back to the Old Country, I have the services of a pay as you go USB mobile modem to keep me connected with the world. This post is coming via it, as it happens.

Am I happy with it? Nope. Why not?

1. It keeps crashing my MacBook. This happens, it first seemed, randomly. However, I think I have managed to work out that it happens when the machine has been asleep, or if the dongle was plugged in AFTER start up. Fingers crossed that if I plug in the dongle and then turn on the machine, then ensure it does NOT go to sleep I can use it safely-ish. That’s a bit of a nuisance to say the least.

2. Three or “3″ mobile network sucks. When I am busy surfing away it stops working and disconnects me at random. Also, often while I am connected web pages won’t load. Then it may disconnect me again for a laugh.

My main mistake is that I went with 3 who are a solely 3G network (clue’s in the name, see). This means that if there is not a 3 signal, they don’t have a 2G network to fall back on to at least provide some connectivity, even if it is somewhat slow.

Looks like on my next trip out I will be investing in a short-term contract Orange USB dongle.

The first year in a new country is going to be a year of ‘firsts’ as one experiences how occasions are handled in the new culture.

Valentine’s day looms and it seems the country has gone into overdrive when it comes to expressing ‘love’ in its many forms.

I can’t believe how everyone has gone card crazy. Jenn has been sending and receiving cards all week from and to – including but not limited to – mothers, sisters, grandparents and friends.

What’s that all about? Sorry, but I think it’s a bit weird. This one is definitely a cultural difference! As far as I’m concerned, there are only two types of person you send a Valentine’s card to: 1. your significant other; or 2. Someone you’d like to be your significant other. That’s it. Anything else is just creepy.

Then again, if you can convince people to send cards to pretty much everyone, just think how many cards you can sell. Call me cynical if you like.

Lovely new patio ... and Brian

It’s been a busy few weeks with lots going on outside the house. I’ve become a dab-hand at pulling out old tree stumps – some of which were HUGE. Now all the hard digging and hacking is over. We’ve also had some new fencing and gates put in to help contain the lil’ pup. They were part of the great plan we have for the house, the main part of which will hopefully take place this spring and summer.

We’re rapidly learning that whenever something nice is done to the house and yard, it makes whatever is next to it seem awful. This was the case with the fencing – the adjacent old concrete and exposed mud immediately needed sorting out. Because we’re having a room extension, we didn’t want to lay new paving or stamped concrete. Instead we opted for something more… flexible.

So, via soildirect.com we had 4 cubic yards of pea gravel dumped outside the house. This would be forming the outdoor patio/entertaining area. With shovel and wheelbarrow I shoveled all 6 tons of it and wheeled it through to the desired area in the yard. Jenn was then on hand to rake it out. The mound of gravel didn’t seem that big when it was delivered but as we worked it seemed to still be substantial. We ended up having enough to do a large area at the side of the house too.

We were also pleasantly surprised that the whole effort didn’t take that long. Prior to ordering we were racking our brains and wondering who we could get involved to help out – would we be needing a team of workers? However, after some quick calculations it soon became apparent it may be easier than we’d anticipated – 4 cubic yards is only 108 cubic feet, and with a 4 cubic foot wheelbarrow… well, you can do the math and see it wouldn’t take a week! Going at a steady pace, laying a weed barrier as we went, and having lunch, I’d say we had it licked in about three hours. Not bad, eh?

After all that sweat and graft and adding a sprinkling of patio furniture we now have a very tidy entertainment area ready for out guests who are due in the near future.

Well this is the first blog post about something techie. Thought I would mention this issue because it’s the first time something like this has happened to me.

For those that don’t know, I do websites and am fortunate to get paid for it!

I had a site go down – falconhealthcare.co.uk. When visited, it was just a blank page and I couldn’t FTP in. I checked the hosting company for any issues and they reported a performance issue on the servers. I gave it some time, but still nothing happened.

To see if it would help, I re-uploaded the index.php file of the site, which was running on Drupal CMS. Huzzah! The site was working again. I was about to go back to playing on Facebook, when I thought I’d just check some of the site’s links were working ok. Suddenly I was being redirected to allvideo.org.uk – a very nasty site that has lots of malware and other evils. Needless to say I gave a huge WTF?! and was very, very confused.

As if you didn’t already know: Google is your friend. It was mine too as a search produced this post by Tony Geer that explained everything. Reading it I discovered that sure enough, my .htaccess file had been altered and I’m guessing so had my index.php. Fortunately the addition to the index.php file had knackered the site good and proper, preventing any innocent users from being hijacked.

I sorted out the site, upgraded the Drupal core and changed the password for ftp. Was this all linked to the ‘server issues’ Heart Internet were having? Who knows. I have reported it to them, so we’ll see what, if anything, they have to say on the matter.

And thanks Tony, you da man.

Update: Heart Internet have suggested that it’s a PC virus that intercepts usernames and passwords and uploads the dodgy content. They helpfully pointed out it was the Gumblar virus. Hmmm, I smell a cover up. Why? Because I use a Mac and I’m the only one with FTP access! Perhaps this issue is a bit closer to home than Heart Internet realise or want to admit.

It will soon be time for my first trip back to the old country since moving to California.

This will be a bit weird. Although I will be going home, I will not actually be going home. Normally at LAX I get the feeling that my vacation is over. This time however I will be going on vacation. Likewise when I return from London I will be not going on vacation but returning home from vacation.

Also, because I have lived in both the US and the UK, both destinations are no longer exotic for me. So, it will be like going home from home, then returning home from home. Weird!

I can’t believe that a year has passed since the last Superbowl about which I also posted.

This time, however, it’s just how I imagined it would be after we moved out here; i.e. the sun is shining, the food is good, the beer is flowing and it’s NOT THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! Well, I suppose you’d guessed that because the sun’s shining, right?

My point is that this is my first Superbowl on US tv with all that entails – the pre-match hype and perhaps the most important thing: the commercials.

These 30 second nuggets of goodness are legendary and big budget. They have to be because it costs the equivalent of the debt of a small third world country to air them.

Jenn tells me that the commercials are also analysed afterward on certain channels! Crazy stuff. You’re supposed to go to the bathroom or kitchen during the game itself so you don’t miss the ads. In the age of PVR’s this must be every advertisers wet dream.

Plus The Who will be rocking the half-time show. Bring it on!