Jun262009

IPB3 – 7 Sins Skin Collection

Design is something i enjoy doing, and the excitement and overwhelming pride that takes over me when i complete eye catching, good looking designs comes second only to when i pull off an app that i thought i couldn’t achieve.

With this in mind, i have decide to embark on the skinning journey for IPB 3.0, skin choices at the moment are very limited as its still early days for Invisions fantastic new software, and with that in mind i am working on 7 skins with different theme’s all based around the 7 deadly sins.

The 7 sins idea came to me a while ago but i never put it into effect, reason being IPB 2.3 was going to be replaced, and the determination to put so much effort into creating skins that were going to be no use in a couple of months seemed like a waste, so i waited.

Starting off the themes is the 7 Sins (Pride) skin. When looking at it you may wonder what does this skin have in relation to pride. Well, the skin is based on BouncyBootlegs and BouncyServers design, something 2 sites in which i am very proud of, so this skin is more related to my own personal pride. both sites have come along way in the last 5 years, especially BouncyServers, with a bigger client database than ever and more and more people seeing the benefits of hosting with bouncyservers i think it is definatly something i should be proud of.

As usual you can see the development in progress of these skins, at time of this writing the default skin on the dev forum is the pride skin, which i am still finishing off, but you ca register and comment on the skin and leave any comments in the shoutbox, or here on my blog!

The default skin will be replaced with the next skin i work on when it starts so you can visit at any time and be sure to see the current skin that’s being worked on.

http://dev.bouncyservers.co.uk is the link you will need, or you can check out the screenshot below :)

Capture

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Jun172009

iPhone OS 3.0 Internet Tethering Rip Off

IMG_0170

So i have had OS 3.0 on my phone for a few days and was unable to setup internet tethering because o2 did not offer the service until today. However, yesterday there tethering information page came online along with their prices for the service.

So first of all let me explain to you what Internet Tethering is. It basically allows you to connect your mobile phone to you PC or Laptop via USB or Bluetooth  and then allows you to use your iPhone as a modem, providing internet to the device its connected too. Pretty much like a mobile broadband dongle does.

Now, anyone with an iPhone from o2 will be aware that all contracts come with unlimited data over 3G and from WIFI Hotspots, so there is no need to purchase additional internet to use your phone tethered right? wrong!

This is another services in which is provided solely for the provider to make money.

IMG_0171

The image to the left shows the prices o2 are charging to use the internet tethering feature on you iPhone. Now the problem with this is that it actually costs o2 or apple NOTHING for us to use Internet Tethering yet they are charging us for more data to use with tethering, when we already have unlimited data plans!

Now, i also have the fortune of owning a Nokia N95 and over the last year, when i have needed an internet connection on my laptop, i have put my Sim card in my Nokia N95, USB connected it to my laptop and launched Nokia PC Suite.

Now Nokia PC Suite comes with a program called “One Touch Access” as seen in the below image. This allows your laptop or PC to connect to the internet using your Nokia N95 as a modem and using your phones 3G or in my case 3.5G connection as the sources.

Now last year i phoned o2 and asked them if my laptop using my iPhones 3G data would cost me anything, to which they replied “No, you have unlimited data plan, you will not be charged for using data”

PCSuite

So, Nokia have provided this feature for years, and now Apple have finally jumped on the bandwagon giving it a new name of “Internet Tethering” and forcing operators to charge for the service… yes, FORCING.

Yesterday i phoned o2 with a few questions, first was why my iPhone would send MMS but not receive them, answer being i have os3.0 early and o2 have not provisioned the MMS receiving yet. when i questioned them about tethering, they said its something they have to charge for as its in their agreement with Apple. So the prices as shown above or just ridiculous, i have unlimited data, yet i have to purchase extra data just to use for tethering, when the data is provided the exact same way! Over 3G, so why should i have to pay extra for it.

Now, like me, many other o2 iPhone customers already spend a minimum of £45 a month on their contract with o2. with the smallest tethering package, that price will jump up to £60 a month and only allowing you 3GIG of internet for tethering!

The iPhone is a great device, but they are starting to annoy me big time with the charging for services which have been free on other devices for years! I really don’t understand how they can justify it or how they can charge you such a high price to use a feature that is absolutely free on other devices.

Slowly backing away from the iPhone, and i can see myself Jail Breaking it now just so i can use the device i paid for how i want to use it, not how Apple force me to use it!

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Jun52009

Bouncy Radio Center 9 – Admin Modules

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The Bouncy Radio Center admin modules are now complete! and with it some cool new features.

First of all it now has its own error reporting functions meaning if there is a problem with your radio connection it will tell you what the problem is, and suggest how to resolve the problem (see above screenshot).

Now, there are 2 modules, an Overview Module and a Managment Module. Overview is the default and gives you a quick look at various things about your radio such as Scheduled Shows Today, Scheduled Shows This Week, number of resident DJ’s and number of Guest DJ’s. It now also has an upgrade history showing you what versions you installed and when.

Managing DJ’s is now much more simple. You no longer have to search for a member and edit their profile. You can now see all DJ’s from one page, Add new guest or resident dj’s, change a dj’s type or delete a dj (see below image)

Capture1

Bouncy Radio Center 9 should now be ready for release very soon! Not much further to go boys and girls!

Stay Tuned!

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Jun12009

UK Fire Brigade

PD*4581986

Summer is here and what better way to spend a hot summers day than in a swimming pool. Its a very simple process. Set up the pool, fill it and jump in.

Well, we got an easy set pool… a massive one, so you would think it was easier. For the people who don’t know what an east set pool is, it usually involves no construction, just a inflatable ring round the top, because air rises in water, the force of the water raises the sides, meaning you have a solid set pool with minimum effort.

Below is a picture similar to the one we have just bought.

pool

Its actually identical, except ours has a white ring around the top, and a different filter pump. Now, your probably wondering what the fire brigade has to do with this?

Well, the first time i filled it, with a regular outdoor garden hose, its took a whole day, and then some. kids were a bit disappointed, so the next day came along, and we took the cover off it, done.

Problem is the time it takes to fill, after so long the water becomes manky, the filter can only clean it so much.

Now, i was told that the fire brigade will fill pools for you, for a price of course. So i gave them a ring.

First of all the receptionist didn’t know anything about them filling pools and put me through to the fire chief, he said to me that they do fill them but its quite expensive. at this point I’m thinking hmm, maybe charge £20 – £30 so the chief said he was going to get the price list, and then he said it, the price for me to have the fire brigade come to my house and fill the pool.

£284 per hour

shocking right, £284 for the fire brigade to fill the pool in the above picture.

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May262009

What A Weekend!

angry_phone

The weekend just gone has been absolutely unbelievable, so many problems with company’s trying to over charge me for things.

First of all, our data center, we ordered are new server, which was supposed to take 24 hours to get provisioned, and now being more than 48 hours later i am told that it has not been setup because of an outstanding invoice. Thing is, we have no outstanding invoices, and telling them this we are told over and over again to email there system admin’s and so on, which just results in us having to repeat everything over and over and sitting around for hours waiting for email responses. We just this minute however asked to speak to a manager, who was very helpful indeed, he had already reviewed the situation and had the whole thing resolved in a minute or two. still, 3 days of messing around.

Next on the list is Rapidshare, somehow my Rapidshare “Rapidpoints” had been stolen, and used to order a new Rapidshare account, when i checked the logs it appears that a server in Chicago was responsible for redeeming / stealing my points. Now, they responded to me informing me a phishing websites, which is what i would expect them to do, fact is, i use a download manager to download, so my login information is never entered manually into any website, and when i login to my premium zone, i manually type in the Rapidshare URL, so i know that I’m entering them into the correct site. again, i reported this on Saturday, and i only just got my points back today.

Third and finally is o2, after my recent article about the £655 phone bill a lady on the phone told me that i would not have to pay a bill this month and that it will be sorted out for me, however, checking my bill i notice i still have a £655 phone bill, which is not a good sign, and in my experience, things are never resolved as easy as they first appear to be, so its probably going to result in more phone calls to o2, more explaining of the situation and more frustration for me.

Also in regards to the recent article about the tool Ben Wizz, he sent more emails to our support department insisting that the cancel button doesn’t exist and if it is there now, that we have just put it there. what a joke, he also continued to refer to me as a “Fat Tw@” who eats nothing but McDonalds and has a sl*g of a girlfriend, which couldn’t be further from the truth, still though, it shows exactly how immature this guy is, and the fact he’s been caught is getting to him. Also I’ve had a few messages from people who are hosted with him, SHOUTcast mainly, I’d recommend you move to a different company pretty swiftly and cancel any payments you make to him, apparently he uses a MSN Address he “hacked” and a hacked PayPal account.. again, he’s full of crap, we can all be hackers, all you have to do is create a new hotmail account under a completely random name, for example, John Smith, then add all your buddies, and say “hey its ant, i just hacked this john smiths msn, how cool am i, now, send me £100 or i will hack yours” seriously? get real.

Anyhow, this guys stupidity has provided many laughs during a frustrating weekend.

don’t forget to comment and let me know how your bank holiday weekend has been.

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May252009

Mr “Ben Swift” and his ultimate internet presence and hacking abilities

super-retard

So today at the office has been rather amusing, so I’m going to tell you all about it.

We had a client who’s name was Ben Swift, and he had some sort of grudge against another website in which we host and was attempting to DoS (Denial of Service) attack this site totally un-aware that it was hosted at the same place he has his radio.

Now, Mr Swift thinks he is all high and mighty and that he was hidden behind a proxy whist attempting to make his DoS attacks using lame downloaded “n00bie” software. He was very much mistaken.

Bouncyservers and its data center consist of a lot of technically advanced minds, and a simple IP check on the attempted attacks pointed to him, meaning i was able to identify him instantly, now, Mr Swift says he didn’t live where he actually lives, told me he was in an army barracks and there was nothing we can do about it and we cannot trace him.

Wrong again Mr Swift, our data center take this stuff very seriously, and they were able to track him no problem, he says were looking in the wrong place because he used a proxy, and as far as I’m aware, Blue Yonder don’t provide proxy servers, and if he WAS using a proxy, it would of been much harder for us to trace him, the fact we knew it was him and traced it to him proves we know what we need to know to take legal action.

Anyway, he still persists on telling us he cant be traced because he signed up to our services with a fake address and registers domains with a fake address, fact is, we have his ISP information, and have reported it to them for malicious activity.

Now, onto the funny part.

Mr Swift thinks he is a big bad hacker guy who cant be traced, and he sent us this email.

ben swift
Client
25/05/2009 17:01

Hi if there was a botton with the work CANCEL on it i would have clicked it a long time ago so stop been stupid noobies that you are and delete my accounts because i am not paying for your shitty services any more useles crap lol

Now, he’s apparently super intelligent and is able to avoid our technical team, yet he is unable to spell and types like a child, and for someone who is MORE than internet savvy, how was he not able to see this?

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As you can see, the cancellation button is there, he was unable to find it, which to me, proves his intelligence.

Also as i mentioned to him in this support ticket, how are our services “shitty” when we were able to prevent his malicious attempts at an attack, trace him and protect the clients site he was trying to attack?

Quite simply, were not :)

Now, as for Mr Swift, he will find that his address and name will be blacklisted from ISP’s and find himself unable to get a fixed line internet connection, and if it turns out he is in a Army barracks, well, he’s going to be in some SERIOUS trouble for using a military internet connection for malicious activities, that’s the type of stuff that can cause a war if attacking the wrong place. Now, i know some of you reading this know Mr Swift, so please, feel free to laugh at him all you like for being so retarded thinking he is so savvy and intelligent. Turns out his big mouth has done nothing but get him into trouble and help build our case against him.

We actually spent around an hour today laughing at this guy whilst we were building the new servers, true entertainment indeed.

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May242009

BouncyServers New Servers

Its that time again boys and girls, the time in which poor Anthony here is over run with work and things to do. Amongst the chaos of all the software upgrades and app building, I have now got a server to build, and me being me, the perfectionist that i am, its sure to be a problem free transfer (fingers crossed).

So, basically when we move to new servers its a really simple process, but can be very time consuming. The whole process is just like transferring all your files from one PC to another. First of all we have to build the server, then we have to get everything installed, things like apache, PHP, MySQL, cPanel and then after that, we have to get all the security put in place.

Once all this has been done, we then start the transfer, generally this is an automated process done between the 2 servers. The new server connects to the old server, and then it sucks everything off the old servers hard drive and places it on the new server. The fun doesn’t stop there though.

Once everything is moved across we have to validate that every single file has been transferred successfully, now, I’m sure your aware how many files are stored on your home PC, well, its a lot, and the amount of files on the server can be double that at times. If your a customer and you want to help speed up the process, you could delete any unnecessary files from you hosting account which would help increase transfer times, but you don’t really have to do this.

During this time we will also be investigating suspended accounts and terminating them as necessary, reducing the amount of data we have to transfer, so if your hosting account has been suspended for the last 5 days, your have 3 days to have it resolved.

If your a BouncyServers customer there will be a lot of information in an email the support department sent out regarding the transfers, but if you have any questions about the move, you may ask here and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Stick around for more updates as i progress, it can take up to 24 hours for the server to be built so i guess we all have 24 hours at least before any transfer takes place.

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May212009

O2-UK Messing Up My Bill Once Again!

o2

So, were coming up to the end of the month, and for many people this means there phone bills amongst lots of other things are due to be paid. For me, it marks the start of another long and boring phone call with o2 about my phone bill.

Now, i have been with o2 for years, prices are fair and never used to have any problems, that however has been a thing of the past for the last year. Something to look back on and think “ahh, remember the good old days when you used to just pay your bill without any hassle”.

Now, for the problem. Every month I’m forced to phone o2 because they cut off my phone for no reasons, mess up my bolt ons, or start charging me for things they shouldn’t be. Well, I’m sad to say, this month they messed up BIG time.

Mobile phone tariffs can be quite expensive, for me, i choose a £45 a month tariff on the iPhone, seemed to be the best deal for me for what i use. Now, £45 doesn’t sound like much, and its defiantly something that is achievable each month for me without any problems, and this is why i choose the tariff i am on.

So this morning, 7:25am i get out of bed, check my phone and notice i have a new email. It’s from o2 and its my phone bill. I wasn’t to worried about my bill this month as I’d hardly been using my phone, but upon reading the email i found myself being smacked in the face with what can only be described as an imaginary wet fish. Let me show you the email i got.

Dear mr Anthony Kinson

You can now take a look at your O2 bill for 18/05/09 online. Your total bill for this month is £655.28. Please arrange to pay this by the date detailed on your bill. Cheques being cheques, they do take a few days to clear so if you could write your mobile phone number or O2 account number on the back of the cheque and send it in time to allow for this, that would be great. Alternatively, why not pay with your debit or credit card by using the ‘make a payment’ option from your online bill, or call customer service and select the ‘billing and payments’ option.

Now at first I’m thinking what the hell is going on here, maybe the email is just wrong, or maybe my phone was connected to the internet and downloaded some stuff while i was asleep, or maybe i accidentally dialled a number. At this point i decided to logon to my o2 account on my laptop. Here’s what i found. (click to enlarge)

1

2
3

As you can see, that is pretty messed up, first problem is my tariff has been listed 4 times. one is a deduction, then I’ve been charged £555 for my tariff, and then i have been charged again twice with 2 lesser amounts. Now i don’t know what the hell is going on with o2, but all they seem to do is mess up my bill, more so this month than ever before, and this isn’t just the first problem, before they updated there site, i had loads of problems logging into my account. Apparently it was my browser, or should i say, the browser on my phone, my PC, my laptop, my mums pc, my friends laptop, apparently my account was fine, and the problem was with all of these computers, despite the fact my mum could login to her o2 account on all of them. Problem is down to there poor coding in there websites, its pretty much as simple as that and anyone who has been into an o2 store will know that there computers are always down.

So, the next step for me is to now phone them, have them fix it, which will probably result in my phone being cut off like last time, they told me not to pay the bill so it could be regenerated and to pay double the following month, 2 days later, my phones cut off for not paying the bill. Crazy, the whole o2 system is a mess and i seriously think they should re-think about there system layout.

If anyone else is on o2 and has had similar problems, or recurring problems with o2, comment on this article and share your story. Would be interesting to read what other problems people are having.

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May202009

Bouncy Radio Center 9 – LiveStream Update

Just a quick message really. There is going to be a major overhaul on the livestream player, Basically it is going to be put into its own module / class and there’s now 28 selectable themes for it, including the themes you are already familiar with.

This should allow for better calls to the livestream player in hooks and modules that people may create. Thinking ahead ;)

Anyway, i will post another article soon with a sneaky peak at the skins that will be available.

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May192009

Listen Info Update – Bouncy Radio Center 9

Right then, well I’ve been a busy bunny since my last article with updating the listener info detection for media players, and, well, there’s now 7 which are recognised successfully (see below image).

  • Winamp
  • iTunes
  • VLC Media Player
  • Real Player
  • Bouncy Radio Center LIVE Stream
  • SHOUTcast App for iPhone / iPod Touch
  • Windows Media Player

If you know of any other popular media players that are used to tune into your radio just let me know the name of the media player, and the user agent information, and I’ll add it to the standard list.

Also to answer questions i often get asked about VLC player. The reason its not added as an option to tune in with is because VLC uses all sorts of file types and supports lots of methods, as such, you can use VLC to tune in using the winamp link or the iTunes link, and so on. Any entry for VLC would be nothing more than a duplicate of another link so not really needed, but it IS supported.

If you want to send me a recommendation for a media player just comment on this article and I’ll respond. If you have Bouncy Radio Center v8 installed you can tune into your radio with the media player you want to submit and grab the User Agent data from the listener info there.

linfolist

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