Complain Complain Complain

Posted by Kev Atkinson

Apparently British people don’t complain enough, it’s written down somewhere, probably on the internet.

I like to complain though, and Virgin Media have been the company who have bore the front of my complaints the most in the past 12/14 months.

November/December 2009
Back then, we had the difficult task of moving NE1fm 102.5 to new studios. This was a massive undertaking, and took 4 weeks to move. We were advised 7 days for Virgin Media to move the services. However 4-6 weeks was the actual amount of time Virgin Media required to transfer services and install. Their staff suprisingly did everything required to gain their bonuses, but nothing to actually make anything happen.

Fast forward a bit, 15+ telephone calls resulted in a threat of me going to their London office. It was ‘laughed’ off. That evening their Chief Exec got an email, I got a phonecall back within 5 minutes and within 3 days we were magically sorted and compensated generously.

December 2010
Our cable connection went down. That’s fine, things break. But the first realisation I was going to struggle to get any sort of anything out of them occured when the ‘technical support adviser’ told me Virgin Media Cable Modems will not turn off if you turn off electricity. They magically will not turn off, somehow.

So, annoyed I was told an engineer would call on Thursday. That didn’t happen. I called them, he’ll call on Friday. You guessed it, no call Friday. I reminded them their Service Level Agreement was closing in and they wern’t interested – so I decided to threaten them with the Newspaper. They didn’t seem too bothered. So I called the paper and a story appeared Saturday morning.

Pleased with the first level of action, I called Virgin Media on the Monday. An engineer will be out this afternoon. 4pm Monday, I call – no engineer. I gently remind the guy on the phone that a newspaper has already ran a story on it, that they’ve failed their agreement, and the paper will run another story if it isn’t fixed on Monday. The drone advises he will ‘inform management’.

Fast forward. 16:55 Monday, newspaper has been notified. The story runs on Tuesday. Just before 5pm another phone call. Oh, Virgin Media and their first callback that week. An engineer will attend 9am Tuesday morning.

They attended 9am Tuesday (2x engineers/ 2x vans) and fixed the problem. But they were too late. The story ran anyway. If it hadn’t of been fixed today their Chief Exec would have got this instead of my blog. But hey-ho.

Apart from this being a small insight into something not very exciting. The moral of the story is to complain, and complain. They laugh it off until the big guns get involved – then they give you the service you should get anyway.

I’ve launched KA Distribution Services!

Posted by Kev Atkinson

Last time I wrote here I was talking about distribution services and how had created a distribution server network for hosting most things audio!

Well, fast forward a little while and you can now view and sign up to services at a dedicated website. http://www.ka-distribution.co.uk manages all things hosting/podcasting and comes with a pretty snazzy Customer Relationship Manager and integrated billing system – nice!

So, if you need something, I can probably help!

Podcasting & Audio Delivery

Posted by Kev Atkinson

This year I started looking at services I could help with via my website, and how I could branch out to further provide services around audio and IT. One thing that I looked into was podcasting.

Podcasting has been around for a few years now, but I never really picked up on it or how good it can be. I needed to learn how to podcast, how it works, how it’s powered – and stuff like that. So, working away in Hull and stuck in a lonely hotel room at night I set about reading about podcasting, the background to it, why people do it, and most importantly, how you do it.

A few nights later, I’d launched the Kev and Nixxi podcast so listeners to the radio should could easily listen back to the radio show during the week. But how could I make it better? I looked into ways people get podcasts, and more and more I read that people use their iPods and iPhones to listen to podcasts. Naturally, the progressive route from there was to get Kev and Nixxi onto iTunes listed as a podcast. Again, I had no idea how to do this, so another night of research and it was done.

The podcast took off quickly, reaching around 1000 subscribers within a few months, it was at this point the new service was offered via my website for me to help others, and it didn’t take long.

Working in radio and as a DJ, I’m regularly chatting with ‘fellow deejays’ – and they had the same issue. They wanted a podcast, they want it on iTunes, they want people to listen on iPhones, iPods, and now iPads. It’s a centralised way to deliver podcasts, it integrates with some of the most popular devices out at the moment – so after some networking, some late nights, and more late nights, the first podcast was supplied and hosted via kevatkinson.co.uk.

Fast forward 6 months, and demand is increasing tenfold. A network of audio distribution servers now exist with extremely fast links to the internet and unrestricted bandwidth for fast downloading and distribution of audio. With some extremely influential music promoters and DJ’s on board the future looks bright as demand spreads literally internationally for the services I provide.

If you require help with podcasting, podcast hosting, audio hosting for distribution and most other audio services, do get in touch with me, you’ll find the information you need here.

Blog Merger

Posted by Kev Atkinson

OK, so I’ve merged my personal and my ‘IT’ blog tonight.

Why? For someone who admittedly did not update a blog very much – having two was a little silly. I have my personal one which started out a few years back on Myspace. It attracted a lot of views, so I wanted to continue with it. However, I did not want to continue with Myspace. So I moved to Blogspot.

Blogspot was good to start with, you could update it centrally then it would FTP the actual update to your server. Great as I prefer stuff to be where I have control. Then Blogspot stopped that – you had to host it on their systems and you had to have a ‘user.blogspot.com’ address. I didn’t like that.

So, after getting around to it, I looked at what was about now and found WordPress. It’s got a great interface and is really easy to use – and most importantly is based on my server. So I’m in control.

Why did I have two blogs? I wanted to setup an IT one to put tips and tricks, share ideas, good practise and other stuff on. But tied in with the above, I lost interest when I lost the ability to have it on my server.

So, fast forward to now, one blog, one less to worry about, one more easier to update. Hopefully you’ll stick around.

Very soon I’ll update you on two pieces of software I’ve found useful lately. Talk then.

I’ve Launched FobOff.co.uk

Posted by Kev Atkinson

A few blogs back I blogged about FobOff. I made it in about 4 hours after wanting to refresh my PHP skills, my current job uses 0% PHP, my old job used 98% PHP, so once you’ve taken the time to learn it you should really keep it fresh in the head.

Anyway, skip to yesterday where I ‘officially’ launched FobOff.co.uk. That basically meant I pulled my finger out, registered a domain and moved it there. Easy!

Do check it out, share it, tell people about it, blog about it and stuff – I’d like people around the world to be fobbing people off with something I made!

Do let me know what you think about it in the comments section too!

Blog Change

Posted by Kev Atkinson

Hi all, as you may have noticed I’ve moved by blog from Blogspot to WordPress. Blogspot stopped you from hosting it on your own website, which I prefer really – so I took the dive and moved to WordPress.

Whilst I’m pretty good with this web stuff, I did wonder how easy it would be to install WordPress – they have a special 5 minute installation thing, which took less then that – then a plugin to move everything from Blogspot to here took care of the rest!

So, welcome to the new blog – my August resolution? To update it!

Latest happenings….

Posted by Kev Atkinson

Ok, firstly if you’re reading this – you’ll notice I seldom update this – I try to update it more – but then forget.

Anyhow, the main things that have been happening recently;

  • Kev & Nixxi
    This is my radio show, I do it with Nicola, my friend. You can hear it on NE1fm 102.5 every Saturday night from 9pm, or via the show website (click the title to see it!) – It’s been going for over 6 months now, and we’re at show #33. We put a weekly diary on the show website, alongside pictures when we have listeners in – and you can hear previous shows on the listen section. Alternatively, click here to subscribe in iTunes.
  • KevAtkinson.co.uk
    That is my website, and you probably came here from there. While it is seldom updated, when I do update it, it has superb stuff on it. I’ve just written a podcasting section. If you want to podcast, I can help – check it out!
  • NE1fm 102.5
    Outside of my day job, this takes up most of my time. I’m part of the management who operate the station, and I have presented on it for over two and a half years. We’ve recently moved from NE1fm.com to NE1fm.net due to a dispute. Good stuff!
  • Contact Me
    One thing that is always up to date is the contact page on my website. I get a lot of contact from listeners, potential production & voiceover work & loads of other random stuff. If you want to get in touch, that’s the place to go!
  • FobOff
    FobOff is something I made in about 4 hours, I made it to keep my PHP & MySQL stuff active in my brain. It gets tons of visits now, and is very popular. Please tell everyone!

Apart from that, in my personal life, I had to get rid of my VW Bora as I couldn’t sustain the payments on it – the joys of redundancy. What makes it worse is the place that makes you redundant then press release a crazy profit – one of their best years yet. Nice for them eh? They didn’t loose their posessions and nearly their homes. I’ve now got a 12 year old ‘barge’ – the Vauxhall Omega – it’s big, old, and thirsty.

I’ve also had a lot to do with the dentist lately. After avoiding them for years due to an un-based fear of them, I decided to go see them after a tooth broke and I left it too late. I’ve been back and forth for 3 months now, and yesterday was my final visit of my treatment and I had my smashed tooth removed. The relief from the pain is great, if you’re avoiding the dentist. Don’t.

Anyway, I’m going to work on updating this at least one a week again now – so do check back! and please do comment if you read these – so I know I’m not talking to myself!

On & On

Posted by Kev Atkinson

I’m off to Hull on Monday for a 4 week stint at a company giving them IT support on their Novell bits & pieces. Little out of touch with Novell (6 months since I used it!) but looking forward to getting back into it!

This means, as the loyal people once loved, the blog/diary/pics & car review will follow. I’ve hired a 308 SW Estate thing with a glass roof which is interesting, I’ll be doing a review of it soon, and the hotel, and the usual stuff!

All starts Monday night, see you then!

Kev & Nixxi

Posted by Kev Atkinson

Just a quick post and update really. I’m back on the radio, and I’m one half of Kev & Nixxi.
The show goes out every Saturday night from 9pm on NE1fm 102.5 and at http://www.kevandnixxi.co.uk

If you’ve tuned into my shows in the past, you’ll like this one too – it’s full of the same fun and randomness, and all the rest you’ve come to love.

Not really much more to say at the moment, check out my contact page on my site if you want to look up my Facebook or Twitter details! See you there!

FobOff – for ‘IT Professionals’

Posted by Kev Atkinson

I just thought I’d take a second to mention a site I made the other day. Called FobOff.

I made it for fun, and to keep my PHP fresh in the head, it took about 4 hours all in, and I’m pretty happy with the result. It all started from a job I had in 2004 at BT, in their Broadband Technical Helpdesk department. A word document went around with 4 columns of technical words, and you strung them together into a sentence to make a corking fob off. I decided then I wanted to make a website out of it, but didn’t have the skills then.

It wasn’t until this week, two things came together. I found an old hard-drive with the Word document on, and brought it up at my current place of work. A silly joke here and there turned into me saying I’d make a site out of it finally, and did. This is what it looks like;

You can find it at http://www.kevatkinson.co.uk/fob/ and in time I plan to put it on its own domain, hopefully make it into a popular site. I put a counter on to count refreshes, and in two days it’s had 7000+ fobs generated. Superb.

I did get some stick from people saying I had copied from the BOFH. In all honesty I wasn’t aware there was a BOFH generator online. I was sent the link and in all honesty, it’s a bit poo, and was made in 1992 (rhyme there!) – so maybe this is the modern version, the other one is 16-17 years old!

Please do feel free to leave a comment if you like it or loathe it, I like comments.

I will always follow you…

Posted by Kev Atkinson

My blog is moving, I’ve enjoyed spending the last few years here on Myspace with my Blog, but the fact is Myspace is in its demise now.

Another main reason, is one day Myspace will probably disappear, and so will my ‘award’ winning blog! (I like to think it could win awards for randomness and occasional humor!)

As I write this, here are some facts taken from the stats on the left hand side (as you write a blog on Myspace, it shows you stats)

This will be my 91st and final blog here.
My blog has only had 19 comments, but 19 excellent comments, thank-you.
Today, 5 people read my blog, this week, 14 people read it, since it was created, a whopping 7047 have viewed it.
I’ve been awarded 10 Kudos too, whatever that is.

Thank-you to all.

Here’s a nice pic…

The blog isn’t stopping, it’s just moving, to ensure it stays online it’s going to my website. I’m copying the blog over slowly but surely, and you can now find it at http://kevatkinson.co.uk/blog/ !

See you there!

Kev

Tip: Software

Posted by Kev Atkinson

I thought I best revive this and now that my new re-designed website (http://www.kevatkinson.co.uk) is pointing here – I best get on and put some good stuff on!


I’ve been playing with a bit of software recently, called unRAID.

If you have an old computer lying about, some hard-drives and you fancy a ‘NAS’ box (Network Attached Storage) – this is the thing for you. It’s specifically targeted toward media storage.

So to get started, you download the software from http://lime-technology.com and stick it on an unused USB memory stick or the likes. Make sure your old computer can boot from USB.

Stick your formatted old drives in the machine, in the right ways for your cables (IDE or SATA) – and boot it up. 

You can read more about it on the website, it’s free for up to 3 drives, and decently priced on top of that, here’s some of the info!

Let me know if you like it! & keep checking back for tips and tricks.
unRAID Server is a Network Attached Storage server operating system designed to boot from a USB Flash device and specifically designed for digital media storage:

    * Digital Video
    * Digital Music
    * Digital Images/Photos

Unique RAID System

unRAID Server employs a unique RAID technology which provides for great configuration flexibility:

    * Any combination of IDE and SATA hard drives may be used.
    * All the hard drives do not need to be the same size or speed.
    * Hard drives not being accessed may be spun down.
    * Can rebuild any single failed hard drive.

True Incremental Storage

Unlike other RAID systems, unRAID Server supports true incremental storage expansion. You can add capacity by adding more hard drives or by upgrading existing hard drives. This is a great way to make use of older, smaller hard drives you might have laying around.

For example, you might start out by installing one or two new high capacity hard drives along with some number of smaller hard drives you already own. Later, you might decide to replace one of the smaller drives, and unRAID Server will restore the data of the smaller drive onto the new drive, and then expand the file system to incorporate the full size of the new drive.
Better Fault Tolerance

Similar to other RAID systems, unRAID Server permits reconstruction of a single failed hard drive. However in the unlikely event of multiple hard drive failures, data loss would be isolated to only those hard drives which failed. In traditional RAID systems, multiple simultaneous hard drive failure results in complete data loss.

Changing the Registered User and Company Name in Windows XP / Vista

Posted by Kev Atkinson

This is something I’m always doing to try and keep standards – I like to keep the name and company name the same within a corporate environment. Some people like to put the name of the user, some the name of the I.T man, but this can all be changed!

I’m always asked this by friends and colleagues, it’s annoying also as HP/DELL often are delivered with nothing in there – it’s not required, but it can help with application installs for auto typing the company name/user.

Here’s how you do it;
Click Start, goto Run, and type in regedit. Hit enter. You’ll get the registry editor screen open.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SOFTWARE, MICROSOFT, WINDOWS NT, CURRENT VERSION. In there you’ll see two editable sections. One called RegisteredOwner, and one called RegisteredOrganization.

If you double click these, an edit window will appear. Simply put in the value box what you want it to say for both things, and click OK. You’re done! Simple wasn’t it?

The above obviously needs you to have the correct rights to access and edit the registry, if you’ve done things right, Administrators should be able to do this, the end user shouldn’t!

Next time, I’ll show you how companies put their logo and support information in the properties of My Computer. It’s very easy, and if your the IT guy, you can earn lots of whoa and kudos by doing small modifications like that!

HP DL180 G5 Server – Blue Screen on Windows 2003 Install

Posted by Kev Atkinson

If you want the solution, skip to the bottom! Before that is the background and random troubleshooting steps I took before I solved it.

If I could put the last 8 weeks into perspective, and think of what has hacked me off the most, I would have to say the purchase of a new HP DL180 G5 server.
To compliment the new Blackberry project I was putting in at work, it was decided a small/medium server would be ideal to run the Blackberry Enterprise Server (for Groupwise) on. It was recommended to use the HP DL180 G5 server, so it was ordered.

Delivery was done within a day or two and I quickly unpacked to get the server going, as I wanted to get the Blackberry stuff up and running and leave it to manage itself.
After consideration, Windows Server 2003 was chosen for the operating system, we were going to trial 2008 – but since the Blackberry Enterprise Server software had no specific information on it working with 2008, 2003 was the choice – and so the installation began.
The DL180 has an internal DVD drive, and we got two discs for it, which were installed and configured on RAID with the HP tools CD which came boxed, then – the Windows 2003 disc went in and all looked good.
For anyone who’s installed Windows from 2000 to XP, you’ll know it basically boots up from the CD, and copies files it will need for the installation. At a point you may need to install 3rd party drivers but with the DL180, this was not the case, so the installation continued till the ‘Starting Windows’ part appeared in the bottom left of the setup screen. I expected it to load into the next screen without fail, but no – whack – a blue screen of death hit me with inaccessable boot device.
So – the puzzle began, retracing steps, opening the case to make sure the cabling was in, re-setting up the RAID, ensuring the discs were showing in the BOIS, I spent most of an afternoon working on it in the air-conditioned room, but there was no resolution. It continued to blue screen no matter what route I took. That’s when I turned to my secret tool, Google.
Google quickly showed this was not a unique happening, one guy on a forum had already packed his up and sent it back – lots of people were unhappy, this server was blue screening for everyone who was attempting a Windows installation. I spent about 3 hours looking into it, downloading tools from the HP support website (which is too big for its own good!) – and failing miserably.
The solution.
After playing around in the BIOS, I made the decision to disable the SATA channels 1 & 2 in the BIOS. Strange you’ll say, but this stopped the DVD drive working, and the discs stopped reporting their sizes – many at this point would say no, that’s wrong and re-enable them. I dug out a USB DVD drive and thought I’ll give it a shot. Some sound advice from an ex-colleague me that this was sometimes required to get a server going, and I took it – and tried it.
Suprise, it worked.
Somehow, the Windows installation recognised the disc size, and installation begun – once Windows was installed, the DVD drive started showing and strangely the server was up and running. Then the painful task of driver installation started – I got stuck on the network card, with about 30 different drivers available on the HP support website (the HP detect tools don’t work on this server for driver detection). I decided after pulling my (small amount of) hair out, to contact HP support on the phone and received excellent support specific to my serial number – and the server was 100% within an hour.
So if you’re having the same problems, disable all SATA, install from a USB DVD drive, and hey presto – you’re ready to go.
Please leave a comment if this has helped you, I’d like to know my posts help people solve their problems.

Returned!

Posted by Kev Atkinson

Because the blog is new, you’ll see below I had to take time out because of a broken arm. Happily now though it’s getting better, so I’m going to give this a shot… enjoy 😀