Reviews by Cole » life sucks

Meh

Cole — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:04:00 +0000

Of the 3 cabinet locks I installed yesterday, only 1 of them seems to want to work – and that’s only when I slam the door shut. What gives?!

Time for a dip

Cole — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Summer means a lot of things. According to the Lifetime channel, it’s skin season. Samantha plans to spend all summer playing Maplestory with me, when she’s not in her pool. I’m not enough to consider our community pool myself but haven’t had the chance yet. Wendy and I wanted to hang out there a few months ago but it wasn’t open. WTF. It’s Texas. It’s never cold enough to shut the pool! I don’t swim anyway so it’s no great loss (I’d definitely be more upset if it was something like the great pool at the Sahara hotel in Vegas) but I wouldn’t mind cooling off. My trips to Wal-mart can only really take place in the wee morning hours or I’ll melt. I still get a little puddly as is. Luckily our A/C never goes out. Oh, didn’t you read?

It’s Getting Hot In Here

Cole — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:35:00 +0000

And humid. Nothing like a little heat and muggy weather to kill the appetite. It sure beats the hell out of taking an appetite suppressant which makes you all dizzy. Although, the sweatiness and sunburns can go. I spent 30 – 40 minutes outside the other day walking to the bank and gas station and I look in the mirror before my shower only to see I’m sunburned on my arms and chest. WTF is up with that? I don’t know why people like heat so much. They’re nuts.

Unhappy Tummy

Cole — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:34:00 +0000

So my stomach hasn’t been really stable since I got home. It sucks. I don’t feel sick but I’m definitely not.. right. Plus, I’m constantly hungry. Needless to say, I don’t have any use for Colonix or anything similar right now. Haha. And, even if I were wanting something like that, I’d probably just stick with Activita or something which seems more natural.

Reality

Cole — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:48:00 +0000

4 days ago, while heading out of town with Wendy, I was caught between the trailer of a semi who had cut me off and a car in the passing lane. With nowhere to go, I had to swerve to miss the trailer which would ultimately do more damage. Luckily, no one was hurt and our auto insurance was up to date and they have been very cooperative. Unfortunately, I was informed today that our car is considered totaled. Trying to look at the bright side, insurance will pay off the remaining balance on the car and we’ll have a bit left over. However, when Ryan gets back, we will have to look for another car again. I feel like utter crap, you can bet but I know we’re lucky – that it could have been so much worse. Still, it really makes me grateful that we had insurance and I definitely have a greater appreciation for insurance whether it be car, home insurance, life insurance or whatever.

A Pain In My.. Back

Cole — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:40:00 +0000

I have been a good girl when it comes to doing the dishes lately, partly because there’s fewer than if Ryan were here and partly because I cannot stand it when our freakishly shallow kitchen sink gets full. Some days, both sides can be full and, by the time I wash them all, it only fills like half of the dish rack. I kid you not. It would be nice to have a deep sink like the basin style farmhouse sinks at WholeSaleStone sinks but, of course, I can’t do that here. For now, I guess I can fantasize about having a functional (nevermind beautiful) sink as I slave over ours and hurt my back. Yay. Not.

As a side note, I remember watching some home improvement show where the crew came to help this couple who were trying to renovate their apartment so they could list upstairs. They finished the bedroom and added a beautiful bathroom complete with tile shower, clawfoot tub (the floor had to be reinforced) and a gorgeous basin sink that matched the fabric the wife had wanted to incorporate into the upstairs. I thought that was really neat!

Ouch!

Cole — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:37:00 +0000

Many mornings, I wake up with stiff and cramped hands. This is probably not a good sign but as it fades over the day and it doesn’t really impair me all that much, I make do. WebMD suggests I may be developing arthritis which certainly isn’t something I want to hear. Morning pains are not uncommon, however, especially as we age. Pain can be a sign of a number of health issues – arthritis being one of the more common. If you wake with foot pain beneath your heal, you could even be suffering from a condition called Plantar Fasciitis, a condition which can be treated by wearing a special brace overnight to help the foot and ankle so morning pain is lessened. Of course, I am from the tribe of people who touch it out and in today’s unsure economy, I bet many people are not going to the doctor needlessly so if you can find an affordable alternative to pricey treatments, it’s always a plus.

Proxy? Say what?

Cole — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:43:00 +0000

One of my favourite games to play is a cute MMORPG called Maplestory. In fact, I play it online with my sister pretty frequently. Unfortunately, when I was in Japan I could not. Because the company who created the game leases it out to different companies across the world who, in turn, create “local” versions of the game, I was unable to play the version I had started on. The game detected my IP and would not let me access it unless I played the Japanese version which comes with a whole slew of problems for someone like myself who does not read it.

I didn’t play for over a year because I didn’t know what or even if there was a solution to this problem. Eventually, I was turned on to the idea of proxies but didn’t know how to use them, or which would work best. I browsed list after proxy list but it was all Greek to me. Just when I thought I understood the whole process, I needed an IP address.

Of course, while I only wanted to play a game I loved, others use anonymous proxies for more malicious and sometimes just annoying purposes. As we all know, anonymity on the internet sometimes leads to immature behaviour such as harassment so I can understand why some people wouldn’t be the biggest fan of proxy utilities. That’s why IP2Proxy™ is such a great site. This web tool allows you to look up IP addresses and detect whether or not proxy software is being used to mask the original IP address.

IP2Proxy also offers a few tools for your website such as an anonymous proxy detection badge like the one below. This badge shows whether your visitor is behind an open or anonymous proxy.

Demos of web tools and more information can be found on the IP2Proxy website.

Neureal (EMC Webhosting)

Cole — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:41:00 +0000

I was going to start this with, “I don’t want to be mean in my review of Neureal, the webhosting company I’ve been with for years” but.. Let’s face it, I don’t really have many qualms about being mean.

The background is that I have been with this company for over 5 years (or is it 6) and I’ve hosted several domains with them, have had numerous hostees and owned dozens of subdomains myself.

My relationship with them started off a bit rocky if only because I was new to this whole owning a domain and needing hosting thing. At the time, they were also using some older hardware and software which seemed to be slightly problematic. However, everything was upgraded and for several years I had no issues with any of their services. I could likely count the number of times I was not able to access my sites on one hand and they’re all forgettable, save for one time when the server was hacked which may have been before the upgrades anyway.

Neureal has always used H-Sphere for its server management software, unlike many companies which use C-Panel. I have found it to be easy to use and fairly customizable. I cannot remember a time when it really did not meet or even exceed my needs. I was able to set up FTP users, databases and use several scripts provided by Neureal for searching and statistics. Within this control panel was a support center featuring help topics and support tickets. I almost never had to contact Neureal because of something wrong on their end; I usually only needed help with serve info when installing scripts or if I accidentally deleted a file (oops!) and they were always extremely helpful in their responses which often occurred in less than a day.

All was good for several years until sometime earlier in 2008 when I ran into a snag and submitted a trouble ticket. I received no answer and checked back sometime around the 48 hour mark to find that not only was my support ticket gone but that the whole trouble ticket system has been removed and, instead, I was redirected to the support center of EMC Web Services. Apparently, there had been some sort of merger or buyout which the new powers that be had failed to tell Neureal’s customers. Not only was my problem still not solved (and it was fairly important; I think I had accidentally deleted the CSS file for my site!) but EMC was not impressing me with its customer service either.

So I had to sign up for this new support center, resubmit my problem and wait. I think it was crappy that not only was my current ticket closed, but they did not take the time to import my old tickets for reference. Furthermore, the new support center is really lacking in features (like you cannot respond to tickets via e-mail!).

Eventually, EMC were so kind to let me know that they could not retrieve the file unless I signed up for their back up service, which I said I would. Of course, they never subscribed me and I was eventually able to fix my CSS file by piecing together older style sheets.

Since then I have had to use the ticket center several times. I usually do not get timely responses and have had to submit multiple tickets for the same, unresolved issue. The issue at hand only further relates to the low quality service I have relieved since Neureal became EMC.

A few months ago, I noticed I was getting duplicate e-mails in my inbox and reported it. They actually responded fairly quickly and said they would look into it was I received no more word after that. Frustrated, I let it sit because I did not want to deal with it but, not too long ago, I looked into it again. EMC said they had not responded because they could not duplicate the issue. Excuse me? That is no excuse to not respond. Please tell me that you cannot duplicate it and I will be happy to clarify, which I did.

So they worked to try to duplicate it and their solution was that these were spam e-amils being sent very quickly by a robot on some computer. However, I know the difference between spam and legitimate e-mails. Spam does look repetitive but it does not usually occur at exactly the same time. Furthermore, these were newsletters I had chosen to receive, alerts from sites like Twitter and Entrecard and even e-mails from specific individuals. I knew they had no idea what the problem was. Their solution was to create a filter within the web based e-mail client to reroute these messages to a different folder. Except, this is useless to a person who wants to use Thunderbird, like myself.

The plugin has done more for me than EMC ever has and it doesn’t even work all that well. EMC eventually responded that they had located the source of the problem. My files are on a server which is not using the most recent version of H-sphere and, since they have no desire to upgrade it, I can switch to EMC’s official services (I am still listed as a customer of Neureal) and manually move all my files over to a new location or pay them $75 to do this.

I let them know this “solution” was not satisfying, did not actually change the problem and installed a Thunderbird Plug-in instead to deal with the issues. It is not my fault they own a server and refuse to keep it up. I should not have to pay them for something they should be happy to do for me and they should apologize for the inconvenience rather than imply I am an idiot. Furthermore, were I going to move all my files to a different serve, it would not be with the same company who has provided me with such shoddy service since they took over what used to be a great hosting company (did I mention they still have not alerted their customers to the transformation? I am sure people were upset when one day Neureal’s domain redirected to EMC’s without warning!).

Honestly, moving is not something I desire to do. It’s a tedious, painstaking task and while I know I will survive it, I would prefer to not have to. In the mean time, I’m stuck with this mediocre company who obviously does not value my patronage and I cannot advise anyone looking for hosting to choose them. In fact, I would suggest anyone with them currently to look for a better host.

Helpful Hint: Do not do business with this company. At all. Period.