This morning I sat down to answer some comments on the site and ended up having quite an amusing conversation with my friend Nick. To give you some background he was tossing a coin at his end of MSN a while ago and saying heads or tails, needless to say I whipped him at a game of Scissors, Paper, Stone… Check it out:
the fox says: rock paper scissors
the fox says: ready
the fox says: paper
Alan says: i won the coin toss so you sure you want to play me
the fox says: yes
the fox says: that was one test of skill
the fox says: there are many
the fox says: you say go
Alan says:go
the fox says: or 3 2 1?
the fox says: rock
Alan says: paper
the fox says: see
Alan says: I win
Alan says: go
the fox says: that’s why the internet
the fox says: go
Alan says: go
the fox says: scissors
Alan says: stone
Alan says: I win
the fox says: this proves my argument
Alan says: go
the fox says: life/time/any delay in communication involves an answer and a reply
Alan says: go ffs or are you scared
the fox says: you have to beat me, if I let you
the fox says: scared? I could kill you with an axe, IM not scared
So, I got an email from a client today shitting themselves because Fasthosts have had a serious security breach, low and behold I just got one too…
We are writing to inform you that we have recently discovered evidence of a network intrusion involving a Fasthosts server. We have reason to believe that the intruder has gained access to our internal systems, and that this may have in turn given them access to your username and some service passwords.
We have since closed the vulnerability through which access was gained, and have taken steps to ensure that this cannot happen again.
We therefore recommend, as a precaution, that you now change the control panel login password on your account.
I have tried to avoid Fasthosts for hosting for about 4 years as they were really bad for hammering bandwidth costs on you etc, I used to run a dedicated server from them and to be honest I was never that happy with the way they dealt with me let alone the extra charges. Some might say it was my own fault for not picking a larger package but there you go, we live and learn but did I really?
Maybe I have been negligent in my activities but somehow they slipped back into my life in the form of UKreg and domain registration, today I too am having to deal with the fact that my details have been compromised on the servers of who claim to be the number 1 hosting company in the UK and what can I do? I am going to have to dig into the coffers and move my domains to someone else to deal with because apparently my data is not safe (I doubt it is truely safe anywhere) and now someone potentially has potentially had access to sensitive info.
I feel sorry for those of you out there that have Fasthost reseller accounts, make sure you bill Fasthosts for any time you spend cleaning up their mistake. They claim in their email to me that they have cleaned up and that it will never happen again… it shouldn’t have happened in the first place!
So how safe is your data? I hope this little wake up call for me can in some way help you avoid getting into a similar situation which brings me to another point… Beta trial accounts.
How many of you out there have been sucked into the Web 2.0 phenomena? How many of you have a beta account for 1 new wizz bang web application? How many of you have 2? I’m going to put my money on you all having more than 2 and that you only ever use a handful of passwords for them or heaven forbid even just one, and I would pose the question how many of those do you actually use?
Scary to think of your identity being sprinkled across the web in many shapes and forms for some nefarious character to tamper with or even worse steal, I know I am going to set aside some time and cull my inactive accounts and take a close look at what I use on a day to day basis and what I really need to be using.
Boom is over… time to get sensible… I kinda stopped reading Tech Crunch a while ago as buzzwords piss me off and thr wr too many app names ending in “r”.
Oh well, rant over, I hope Fasthosts really do lose a good market share and that some smaller better web hosting companies get a look in and I hope you guys get a fright from my fright and take an introspective look at what you do with your data and who holds onto it.
Take care and don’t sign up to anything I wouldn’t
I am probably late with this one but I thought I should share it seeing as it just rocked my socks about half an hr ago, I would have posted it sooner but I was watching people do amazing things and restoring my faith in the human race. More on that in my next post but until then, feast your eyes on this…
I know this animal / robot thing has been done before and possibly over used but for some reason this kinda leapt out at me, I especially like the bit where the rear wheels turn into legs.
Hi lovely readers of Az, Caz & Co, I am Alan’s beloved photoshoped monkey and I am sorry that you are all missing me. I have been working on standing in the corner of Az, Caz & Co for over a year now and Alan decided to give me a rest and paid for me to go on a little holiday whilst he lays down the dust sheets, cracks open the paints and does a little work around the place.
Don’t worry, I really like working for Alan and I will be back… Until then I will try and send you some postcards.
Just a quick post to explain the drastic change of appearance, I have decided to whip things into shape and live dev this site into a new format using Dereks beautiful Grid Focus as a starting point.
You’ll have to excuse the non styled basics and redundant linkage for about 8 hrs till I am done with work etc then I am going to give it a quick lick of paint and see where it takes me.
Hat tip to Gnorb for pointing me in the direction of a nice starting point.
Life… what a broad topic, there are many aspects to it and maybe I will cover them all one day but the one I want to cover just now is maintaining focus. Over the last few months I have been a very busy man and this is a topic that is very close to my heart as it is not an easy task. How do you balance the equilibrium of life and also maintain focus? How do you make sure you do what you are supposed to do on all fronts, who do you turn to for support how do you know if you are going in the right directions?
I recently discovered an energy drink called Relentless and I love their ethos and taglines…
It’s goodbye to the shortcuts, Hello to the grind.
Nobody ever said it would be and easy ride. Suffer for your art.
Words that have rung hard in my ears quite heavily over the past few months. Last year I got made redundant which was a bit of a blow, first thing I did when I found out was hit the pub and started smoking again, but what I have done since then I am very proud of.
Things I have acheived… (the pros)
Become my own boss
Been around a lot more to see the kids growing up… but not as much as I would like!
Asserted myself
Maintained a positive attitude in the face of adversity
Run the first web standards conference in Scotland which I hope has helped a lot of people besides myself
Built my own office
Gained the respect of clients who I now work with on a regular basis
Contracted up and down the country
Helped people bring their businesses online and nurtured their understanding of the web
Made some reallygoodfriends. The are more of you out there and I apologise for not adding you here but I am going to dedicate a post to friends very shortly… my apologies in the short term.
Some things I haven’t done
Spent as much time with the famlily as I would like
Gone home to see my friends more regularly… I moved 150 miles away 2 years ago.
Not blogged as much as I want to and let you guys down
Created a rainy day fund
Done up the rest of the house
My own business web site redesign
Tied up some loose ends I know I should have
Paid the bloody council tax when I should have
Tidied up properly when I moved into my office
Attend the 3rd @media conference (which I am still bummed about)
So… by now you might get an idea of how hectic my life has been, it hasn’t been easy but somehow I have managed to drive through it all. I’m not going to lie, some of it has been hard, some of it has been down right fun… most of it has been a combination of both but in order to survive, I have to maintain focus, set goals and strive for them.
How do you maintain focus? How do you set your goals?
I am in the process of trying to decide where I want to be going, I know that now I am (dare I say) established in what I do work wise, I need make sure I keep that going. Without work I cannot function and I guess this is where my dilema lies but where I also believe my solution is staring at me.
To have a true balance in my focus, I need to remember who I am and the things in life that enjoy.
Balance at work
I want to settle into a 9 to 5 routine with work, to do this I need to fine tune my business model, calander, working days and make sure that I make the time to do this in my schedule whilst keeping clients happy.
My problem is that there is always something that needs done, client work is not the only thing you do in business, I have my own projects that I want to get off the ground beyond my client work.. This blog for example used to be a key part of my online presence… in fact… it is my presence, it has been my heart and soul for the last couple of years and will continue to be.
The number one rule I am learning is that time waits for no man… be it’s master!.
I think something that is key and another valuable lesson that I am slowly learning is that switching off completely can be a very good thing and is something I plan to do a lot more of.
It’s goodbye to the shortcuts, Hello to the grind.
Nobody ever said it would be and easy ride. Suffer for your art.
I stand by this quote and this ethos but I am looking forward to embracing the other side of my life a little more.
Balance at home
Since I began working from home I have been a bit of a hermitt, not just to the outside world but also from my family to an extent, I POP over to read what Matt Brett is getting up to now and again and he seems to have the work / family thing dialed.
I became a step parent nearly 5 years ago now and it has not been the easiest of jobs, I have chosen not to write about the negatives in the past because they are not important, it is the good times that are. Part of the reason I continue to work from home is that I get to spend time (however limited) with the kids even if sometimes it can be heated.
Caroline is nearly finished training as a recruitment consultant and since she has been out at work, I have taken the role of errr… working house bloke… general all round batter, try to the best I can do. I personally think I am not doing too bad a job, I get Elsie to nursery in the mornings, pick her up at night and try to make sure we get to play on the swings on the way home. Charlotte is a slightly different kettle of fish, sometimes we get on fine (and I know there is more there) and sometimes we fight.
I guess when it comes to Charlotte I will be the enemy for at least another 10 years, I don’t know why but I am quite stern with her, I don’t think that is a bad thing to be honest but it has to be counter balanced with the good times. The look on her face when she succeeded at waterskiing was timeless and I want to see more looks like that, I want to take care of the work side so that ultimately I can do more fun things where I can actually be looked up to and asked for help.
Balance in heart
I have to give Caroline a special mention here as she is the other half of me, we work so bloody hard at the moment that we never really get that much time together and I miss it dearly, I know she does too. It is so easy to get get caught up in a routine and forget to take yourselves out of it, this one of my new primary goals… spend more time with the woman I am going to spend the rest of my life with!
It isn’t easy moving away from your friends to a strange city, buying a house in a town where you know anybody, doing nothing other than working, eating and mostly dealing with cabin fever. Don’t get me wrong, I have made some good friends as I have said earlier but we are somewhat missing the baby sitter network we once had so we don’t get out much any more and we are both quite social creatures.
I love the girl to bits and it is about time I showed her I am as passionate about her as I am about all the other things I get up to.
Balance for me
Work, my kids and the love of my life are the most important things in the world to me and if all the things I have talked about happen then I will be a happy man… but what about the selfish side?
In order for anyone to survive and be happy in life they need to do things that they enjoy, their personal hobbies and goals that they keep to that make them who they are. I have been playing EVE Online to unwind at nights but want something more, I want to take up a hobby that gets me out the house, keeps me fit, makes me friends and gives me something to do outside of work and family.
As you all know I am into my martial arts so have decided to go back to Judo, I was a green belt years ago and used to fight in competitions on a regular basis and did quite well. I like the idea of going back because it is a sport and not just combat, I will get a chance to compete at something again and get healthy in the process. Now that sounds constructive.
It’s goodbye to the shortcuts, Hello to the grind.
Nobody ever said it would be and easy ride. Suffer for your art.
I quote these words one more time in closure, I have talked about many aspects of my life in this article but they all hark back to maintaining focus. I like my life, I like the people around me, I miss the people that are no longer in my life on a daily basis but I look forward to the future.
By maintaining focus, anything is possible, it’s time to reach out and grab the future with both hands and see where it takes me, I hope you’ll continue to join me for the ride…
Just a quick post to let you here what I was up to at the weekend, my friend Taff came to visit me and brought his musical toys so we ended up recording a track which even includes backing vocals from Elsie.
I am no expert when it comes to these things but it was nice to get holed up in my new office and have some fun. Let me know what you think.
I just watched a rather disturbing documentary on BBC 4 about the connections between U.S. Congress, U.S. Military, War industry, Think Tanks and so on and so forth… I know I’m probably late to the party here and I don’t usually swear on my blog but holy shit did they fuck up! Man I struggle to come to grips with how they are actually allowed to get away with stuff like that? Fabricating absolutely everything, manipulating not just a country of innocent civilians but the whole world into believing / not giving them any other options other than to go to war…
I’m not that much into politics because I don’t trust the people involved, I know there are some out there that really do care and really do actually give a crap about humans but generally I think they are all out for themselves. I am no expert though and try to steer clear of it where possible. I know some folk would say that I am stupid too, and quite frankly I agree, at the end of the documentary there was an ex-military officer basically answering the question of why we fight and her answer was this…
Because not enough people stand up and say no I am not doing this…
I know that the world pretty much marched against the war and they were right to do so but I think her answer was directed towards the peopl ein the military and associated industries. She pretty much quit because she was being made to swallow lies as part of her job and she had a conflicts of interests so she removed herself from the equation.
Now, I am too young to know first hand about the Vietnam war, I have not had the unfortunate pleasure of being asked to serve my country and I’ve always had respect for Muhammad Ali, what I watched tonight solidified what was already a solid character. He stood up and said no I will not fight. Good man!
I lead a pretty hectic life, I work hard, I try to play hard, try to make ends meet, try to build myself and family a secure environment and something of a future. That is how and why I fight. I believe that most of us are the same, trying to get by, minding our own business, I don’t condone any terrorist action at all, it is the wrong way to do things, innocents die but George Bush is a maniac, I am not surprised folk want to get their own back on him. He infringes on the lives of the people that were minding their own business. It’s just a shame that capitalism holds so much weight… what kind of people does it make us?
There is a really interesting story in the documentary from a Vietnam veteran who lost his son in the world trade centre bombings, when he heard the stories of Saddam being responsible and that they were going to war he was all up for it. He even went as far as to write an email asking them to put his sons name on a bomb, later on in the program he finds out about the lies and the deceipt from George Bush and feels betrayed and lied to. Should one of the most powerful men in the world be allowed to do that sort of shit??? Blatantly lie so he can make money and kill innocent people? Lie so that he can occupy? Lie so he can conquer?
I was busy the other day coding some templates (as I do) and I had the news on in the background for a change. Bush managed to shock and awe me (excuse the bad joke… you know me!) by announcing more plans of crazy dominations with some defence system in Europe, I was stunned to find out minutes later that Russia had decided to point missiles at Europe in response. That can’t be right? Maniac on the loose from America… errr… shoot Europe? These guys are fucking bonkers! They need their balls cut off or something like cats get when they get too rowdy.
I don’t have time for these megalomaniacs, I have trouble getting an extra bin from local council… There are weapons of mass distruction in my house and they come in the form of children!
Anyway… I digress.
There are a lot of good people in this world, people fight for what they think is right on a daily basis, people fight for fun, some fight for glory, some fight because it is all they know. As some of you know I am a big fan of martial arts so like to fight physically because I love the science and the art behind it. Why do you fight? Have you ever had a fight? Have you ever won a fight? How did that make you feel? I have never been political on this blog but I am curious, I am a people person so I would love to hear your thoughts, oh and on a final note, I just found the documentary in 4 parts on youtube so I have included them below.
I really hope you take the time to watch these as they are worth watching. I’ll be back very soon with some more writings…
Okay, this is not what a space ship is supposed to look like in EVE Online, I was minding my own business on a mission trying to blow stuff up and I made the mistake of nearly getting blown up myself (hence all the fire). How did this come about I hear you ask? Well, I have come to the conclusion that I am not very good at the game yet! EVE is not a quick fix game, from what I can gather it is going to take a long time to learn the in’s and out’s of how to fight and how to defend myself, I am looking forward to it.
Today I was reading a thread on a forum about some of the nasty things people have done in game and it made for an interesting read. It certainly opened my eyes to some things to look out for. I am beginning to learn to trust noone apart from my corp buddies. Here are a couple of devious things that I liked:
Last night when i flew around beeing bored, i found a offline POS…
Warped in to it and popped 3x Mobile laboratories (90m each) with my Impairor, which took less than 20min (i think).
After that i “had” to send a message to the CEO of the corp owning the POS, telling him that he just lost POS equipment worth 270m isk to a rookie ship YARRRR!!
That is quite amusing but this is pure class… excuse the EVE lingo, I will look into translating it for you and adding it to my library of acronyms and abbreviations…
i made a 1man griefing corp and dec’d an ASCN newb training corp. flying round in an uber gank munnin of doom as they flapped about with 3 BS lots of cruisers and frigs in empire, smacking me for not engaging.
I consistantly told them i had a spy in the corp and that for 300mil i would end the war. and for 500mil i would end the war, and reveal the spy. I did this all the time, as simply another method of causing paranoia and hysteria within the corp. this lead to them getting more desperate, and eventually taking the 300mil tag and disbanding.
the swinging point was i warped to the station they based out of, and the main fleet was the other side, but as i dropped out i saw an osprey warp to a belt (only thing in that direction) i followed at range, hit him to half armor and he got out. he convo’d me within seconds and started asking how i knew he was there. i obviously replied saying my spy told me etc. Then i get convo from a head honcho saying “hang on…. isk sent, who is the spy?” i checked my wallet and straight from the ASCN main he had sent me 500mil.
I quickly browsed thru ppl online who i had buddylisted and picked out one poor git. who hadnt been there long etc, i said i couldnt provide proof as i was at my GFs for the week, but ill provide when i get back.
get back home a week later and get a convo asking for proof, quickly photoshoped it up, and sent it, the head honcho said “thanks, we felt bad the other night as we podded XXX and he didnt understand on TS, even after we flamed him, he really did sound innocent” i said “well theres the proof” and off i flew 500mil richer
One of the things I find interesting about EVE is it is dog eat dog, there are no scrupals in space! The sheer scale of the game and the amount of things that can and do go on is quite astounding, so what if my ship is on fire and it looks stupid, it’ll happen again and probably hundreds of times.
I am about to go outside and put the fires out, I have my hull repair modules at the ready and makeup ready to cover up the red face and will go out and do it all again, I love this game and I openly invite you all to come join me on my travels. I am in this for the long haul, hopefully I will see you about when my ship isn’t on fire!
Well that is me home now after 2 amazing days through in Edinburgh, I am not going to write much as I am just about to sit down, have a beer and contemplate what just happened. Yesterday was very very important to me and I want to thank eveyone that attended The Highland Fling - Web Standards in Scotland conference (sponsors, speakers and delegates), you made my day! The event has been very close to my heart over these last few months and the topic of conversation is something that I care lots about, to hear so many people happy that this has taken place has made all the blood sweat and tears worth it… but what comes next???
I am already hearing people talking about The Highland Fling II, which will happen, I am over the moon that the event was welcomed so warmly and I am looking forward to the year to come. The Refresh Edinburgh that happened today just spurred things on further and some really good talks were done, thanks for keeping the vibe going guys!
It is time for me to go to bed and have some sweet dreams (I was having nightmares the night before), I have had a great time, met new people, made some new friends and hopefully done my bit to help raise the profile of what we all do in our day jobs. I take my hat off to you all (now that I have it back) and am looking forward to seeing what comes next… The Highland Fling is done but not by any means dusted! The fun has just begun!
Take care everyone, enjoy your weekend, have a few beers for me and I will make sure I am there to drink them next time…
Night folks, and happy easter!
P.S. Go and see the Pixar Exhibition at The Royal Museum on Chambers Street as it is frickin’ awesome!
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